Caught on Camera
by Alaena F. Dragonstar
Summary: When Toichi gives the boys a photo album, a trip down memory lane is inevitable. And with parents like theirs, it's going to be one hell of a ride. :KaiShin:
1. The Album

**A.N**: So I mentioned this idea to V. Shalyr (she's the one who wrote "Countdown to Forever" and "To Wish Upon a Star") and she thought it sounded fun so she's helping me plan this and will be co-writing (or just plain writing) some of these. I wasn't going to put this up yet, but since it's Shin-chan's birthday I thought I might as well. ^_^

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

Pairings: KaitoxShinichi, ToichixChikage, and YuusakuxYukiko

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><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Introduction: The Album**_

"Oh my little Shin-chan's all grown up now," Kudo Yukiko squealed as she threw her arms around her son and squeezed for all she was worth. The young man in question turned a deep shade of red from a combination of embarrassment and rapidly depleting oxygen supplies.

"_Mom_," he said with a longsuffering sigh, prying her arms away enough to gasp for breath. "I've been grown up for years…"

"But you'll always be my baby boy," she replied without missing a beat, earning herself another groan.

"I was afraid of that…"

Ignoring the comment, she finally loosened her death grip on her son just enough to back up half a step and look him over, eyes bright. "And now you're moving out! It seems like just yesterday that you were still in diapers!"

"_Mom_!"

Laughing heartily, the woman finally released her beet red son completely. Around them, the rest of the occupants of the apartment's spacious living room laughed.

"So when are the rest of the guests arriving?" Kuroba Chikage inquired, turning to her own son.

"I'd say in about an hour, probably," he replied.

"A whole hour, huh?" his father mused. "In that case, we have something for you two." The world famous magician, Kuroba Toichi, snapped his fingers and pulled a well wrapped package out of thin air. Smiling broadly, he proffered it to his son.

Kaito took the package a bit warily (his father wasn't above some friendly family pranks—a trait which, admittedly, they shared, but that was just all the more reason to be careful). "What is it?"

"Something the four of us put together," Kudo Yuusaku replied, wandering over to join the three as his wife resumed her attempt to suffocate their son with affection. "Call it a housewarming present."

"From the four of you?" the younger magician repeated, one eyebrow rising. "Shin-chan's not going to want to kill you all when he sees it, is he? Because if he is, you should probably tell me now. You know, in case I can't stop him."

His father gave him an innocently puzzled look he didn't buy for a minute (he'd worn it himself often enough to know it meant nothing). "Whatever do you mean?"

His wife elbowed him, giving him a disapproving look. "Don't give them ideas. We put too much effort into that just to have them burn it before they even take a look."

"Who's burning what?" Shinichi, having finally escaped his mother's clutches, came up beside Kaito with a puzzled look at their assorted parents. All of whom were smiling. Past experience made him want to duck for cover or turn and run really fast in the other direction, but past experience also said that such an endeavor would be futile so it was better just to bear with it.

"Actually, they were just explaining to me why we should _not_ burn this," Kaito explained, waving the package in question for emphasis.

Shinichi eyed the package suspiciously. "What is it?"

"They haven't gotten to that part yet."

"Just open it!" Yukiko exclaimed, eyes bright with eagerness.

"It would certainly help pass the time before the other guests arrive," her husband agreed. Then all four parents turned expectant eyes on their sons who traded dubious looks.

Finally Shinichi let out a resigned sigh and slumped onto one of the living room sofas. "Might as well get it over with…"

Kaito offered him a sardonic grin before sitting down beside him and beginning to unwrap the package. Their parents gathered around them, taking seats around the living room table. As the paper came away they all leaned forward and Shinichi leaned away like someone expecting an explosion. Instead his anxious eyes were greeted by the sight of a black, leather-bound photo album. Embossed in gold upon the cover was a single rose, beautifully rendered and stark against its midnight backdrop. Printed beneath the rose in elegant, slanting letters was a single line of text which read "For the Journey".

Shinichi relaxed slightly and leaned back towards Kaito for a better look at the album. It really was rather beautiful.

"Well? Aren't you going to open it?" Yukiko demanded, practically bouncing in her seat.

Shrugging, Kaito flipped open the album and blinked in surprise.

There, occupying the entire first page, was a photograph of himself and Shinichi sitting on the edge of a fountain surrounded by a flock of doves (most of whom he recognized as his). However the aspect of the photo that was probably responsible for the color rising in Shinichi's face was that the photo showed them kissing.

"How—you—when—" Shinichi spluttered. Then he spotted the short inscription beneath the photo and temporarily blanked. "First Kiss" it read, followed by a date…

. . . . . . . . .

"Rise and shine~!"

Shinichi woke with a start at the extremely chipper voice singing out right into his ear loud enough to make him feel like he was going to go deaf. Jerking away from the source of the sound, he sat up and stared around through sleep blurred eyes. There was a dark colored blob on the edge of the bed but he didn't need to see the details to know who it was.

"Kaito? What are you doing in my room?" he asked, blinking to clear his vision before he took a quick look around to make sure that this was indeed his room. It was entirely possible that he'd been moved elsewhere some time during the night. It wouldn't be the first time it'd happened. But no, this was definitely his room, and the clock by the bed told him it was six in the morning. He groaned and flopped back down on the bed, pulling the warm covers up over his head. "Can you come back later?"

"Don't be like that," the intruder chided, pulling the nice, warm blankets out of Shinichi's determined grasp and proceeding to dig the boy out of his comfortable cocoon. "We've got a long way to go so we'd better hurry."

"Hey," Shinichi protested, trying to burrow back under the covers only to be bodily dragged out of bed entirely. He stumbled as he fought to keep from tripping. "What do you think you're doing? And what do you mean we have a long way to go?"

"Well, my class is going to the aquarium today," the magician explained, pulling open Shinichi's wardrobe and beginning to rummage through it. "Since there's no way I'm going with them, I thought we might as well go do something fun."

Shinichi blinked, still trying to clear the sleep from his mind. "But I have to go to school…"

"Don't worry, you called in sick."

"…You mean you called in sick for me. You know, I'm sure there're laws against that kind of thing."

"It's for a good cause," Kaito replied without a hint of remorse. Not that Shinichi had expected one. Sighing, he sank back onto the edge of his bed and was just wondering if he could get away with another five minutes or so when his vision was obscured by a cloud of lavender smoke. Coughing, he waved the stuff away.

"Can you not do that in my room? It—" He cut himself off as he realized what the smoke had been meant to distract him from. Then he flushed and threw a pillow at the grinning magician. "Kaito! How many times do I have to tell you not to change my clothes for me?"

"But it's faster than waiting for you to change yourself," the magician laughed. "Now come on, time's a wasting~."

Thirty minutes later they were on the train going who knew where. Shinichi couldn't remember all that much of the morning through his usual morning, pre-coffee haze. On the other hand, he'd been introduced to a cup of black coffee twice the size of a usual large to-go cup so he was fairly content to focus on that and let Kaito carry on with whatever schemes he had in mind. He'd be better able to deal with them after he was more awake anyway. Part of him thought he should probably be figuring out how to escape and get back to school, but considering the chances of actually getting away it was probably better just to stay put. Besides, he reasoned, he hadn't seen all that much of Kaito lately (the last two weeks) and he'd been starting to miss his company. Not that he was going to admit that to anyone (he didn't trust anyone he could tell with the information, who knew what could happen?).

"Let's go Shin-chan, here's our stop!" Kaito announced, pulling him up out of his seat again.

Clutching his coffee, Shinichi glanced around as they exited the train. "So where are we going exactly?"

"Just follow me," Kaito non-answered, striding out of the station in the manner of someone who knew exactly where he was going. Another fifteen minutes of walking and they were heading into what appeared to be a rather large park. A banner had been stretched out above the park entrance.

"The Bird Lovers' Appreciation Festival?" Shinichi read aloud, disbelief coloring every word. "What is this?"

"A million times better than any aquarium."

Shinichi had his doubts about that (fanatics were creepy no matter what kind they were), but as they made their way through the festival he had to admit that maybe there was some truth to the claim. Other than the usual music, food, and merchandise, there seemed to be a show going on at every corner. The two of them spent a good half hour listening to two vividly colorful parrots arguing. The debate was rather philosophical and the reasoning astoundingly sound and Shinichi found himself agreeing and disagreeing with the respective sides and their logic before he remembered that these were birds he was thinking about. Surely it was rehearsed, but still… It felt just like listening to two old professors going at a debated topic over coffee.

There were singing bird choirs and miniature air shows that gave aerial acrobatics a whole new level of meaning. They even saw a few magicians performing with their doves. At the sight of the growing grin on Kaito's face, Shinichi had hurriedly ushered the magician away before he could interrupt the amateur magic show.

"Hey, I was just going to help them," he complained, though he let himself be pulled away.

"I don't think they want your help," Shinichi replied. Glancing around for a distraction, his gaze landed on what looked like an obstacle course. Bird sized. Perfect, he thought. Kaito never could pass up a chance to show off. "Why don't you enroll one of your doves for the next round of that?"

Kaito followed the direction of his gaze and grinned. "That _does_ look fun. You should try it too."

"Uh, you kind of need a bird to participate."

"You could borrow one of mine," the magician offered.

Shinichi shook his head vehemently. "I'll just watch."

"Well, if you're sure. Just sit tight and watch the master work!"

Shinichi snorted then smiled. "Were you born with that overwhelming self confidence or do you work at it?"

"Hey, nothing wrong with knowing when you're good at something."

By late afternoon Shinichi was exhausted and even Kaito had lost some of the bounce in his step. So they bought two ice cream cones and a couple bags of birdfeed from a stand being operated by a young woman and five crows (Shinichi noted with some amusement that they had mixes for dozens of types of birds but only three flavors of ice cream) and found a relatively peaceful spot by one of the park's fountains. Kaito summoned two dozen doves or so out of nowhere and they happily set to work on the birdfeed while the humans ate their ice cream.

"So did you have something else planned or are we going home now?" Shinichi inquired, finishing off his cone.

"Well~, there _was_ something else."

Confused by the odd tone that had suffused his companion's voice, Shinichi turned to look at him only to find that Kaito had scooted closer to him at some point and they were practically nose to nose. He blinked in surprise but didn't have time to react as the magician leaned in the last few centimeters and kissed him.

For a moment, time seemed to stop. Then Kaito had leaned in a little too much, Shinichi lost his balance, and they both fell into the fountain with a splash. Shinichi had come up spluttering to see Kaito sitting on the basin's edge with his legs in the water and laughing fit to burst a lung.

Cold, soaking wet, and feeling torn between annoyance, confusion, and maybe a little hurt too, Shinichi sloshed his way to the side of the fountain a good few feet away from the laughing magician. It was funny really, he thought, how a day could go from being kind of fun to miserable in the span of a heartbeat.

"Now that you've had your fun for the day, can we go home?" he asked dryly, refusing to look at his companion.

"N—no, it's not what you're thinking," Kaito insisted, struggling to get his laughter under control. "Honestly. It's just—that wasn't what I had in mind."

"Really?" he asked sarcastically. "So what exactly did you have in mind?"

Since he wasn't looking he didn't see Kaito coming closer (again). What he did notice was the warm hand that caught his chin and turned his head so that he had to meet his companion's gaze. He was surprised to find that, despite his smile, there was nothing but seriousness in Kaito's indigo eyes.

"I was kind of hoping to convince you to go out with me. You know, officially—without the peanut gallery hanging over our shoulders."

Shinichi could feel the heat rising in his face as he looked away. "Oh." If he hadn't seen the look in the magician's eyes he might have wondered if he was joking, but he had and he knew it wasn't a joke.

There was a moment of silence before Kaito spoke again. "So?"

"So…what?"

The magician laughed, inching closer. "Is that a yes or a no or should I try again?"

"I…guess I wouldn't mind. Just—be more careful next time."

Kaito broke out into a broad grin and Shinichi let out a yelp of surprise as he was yanked into an enthusiastic embrace and a second kiss, this time without falling into the fountain.

He certainly hadn't expected this when he'd woken up that morning, but, well… They had been dancing around the issue for a while (not helped by their parents despite said parents' belief otherwise), but it wasn't until that moment that everything had clicked into place.

. . . . . . . . .

…And now they had pictures.

"So that was why you guys weren't upset that we skipped school," Kaito remarked. He'd always thought that was odd.

"It was about time," Yukiko replied, giggling. "We had some pictures of you two all wet too but we thought this one was more fitting."

Shinichi blanched, his already prominent blush darkening by several shades. "How did you even _get_ pictures? I _know_ you and Dad were both in Osaka that day!"

On the other couch, Toichi coughed lightly, his eyes twinkling with mirth. "I took those."

This time it was Kaito's turn to give his father an irritated look which didn't phase the elder magician one bit. Like father like son, Shinichi thought. Though when he thought about it he wasn't sure why either of them was surprised to discover they'd been tailed that day. It was the hazard of having nosy parents with freaky skills. But seriously, the fact that their parents knew it had been the first time they'd kissed just went to show that the whole lot of them really needed to get new hobbies.

**TBC**

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><p><strong>Important Notes<strong>: Okay, so the idea of this is a collection based on the photographs in the album. We're open to suggestions, just describe an image [where, when, what]. Ages for Kaito and Shinicih should be somewhere between toddlers and 25. I was debating writing some things on their parents when they were teenagers too, so that is an option. Other characters may be included, but it must have one of the six characters from this chapter involved. I think this chapter gives a pretty good impression of what this universe is like, but we'll tell you more about it as we go. Just remember, Toichi is alive [clearly], and Shinichi's parents live in Japan.

**A.N**: Whew, that made sense, right? ^^ Feel free to ask questions. Anyhow, updates for this will probably be very erratic as it will depend entirely on when inspiration strikes.


	2. Toddler Toys

A.N: This one's a little short, but hopefully fun ^^

**V.N**: I really like this one, mostly because I can't seem to get the third photo out of my head :)

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

Timeline Explanation: We were asked when the first photo was from. For that one, think late high school. We'll try to make it clearer for future ones ^^

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><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Toddler Toys**_

Shinichi wasn't sure if he wanted to turn to the next page really quickly so as to make the embarrassing first page disappear or stay with the evil that he knew for fear of what else might come. The rest of the apartment's occupants however were all for moving forward so Kaito flipped the page. He was mildly surprised to find that the second page of the album was occupied by two photographs of a pair of toddlers.

The first showed the couch in the Kudo Manor living room. A much, much younger Kaito was sitting on one end, dark brown hair wild as ever. He was peering towards the other end of the couch where a slightly smaller shape was curled up clutching a stuffed dove slightly bigger than he was with a pacifier in his mouth.

The second photo showed the two toddlers now both on the same end of the couch. Only now the stuffed dove was lying on the floor and its owner was wearing a wide-eyed expression. His pacifier was gone too, now in the clutches of his fellow toddler.

"Oh, I remember that," Chikage chuckled…

. . . . . . . . .

Kaito had only recently discovered the joys of crawling. It was a tiring activity to keep up for long periods, but he'd been born with an insatiable curiosity that demanded he master mobility quickly.

Right now he was wondering what that thing curled up on the other end of the couch was. It was blue and white and bits of it looked kind of fluffy. Making up his mind to go investigate, the messy-haired boy began to make his way across the soft, unstable landscape of couch cushions. As he got closer the fluffy white bits revealed themselves to be bits of a stuffed animal. The blue bits on the other hand belonged to a person.

Interest piqued, he crawled closer to investigate.

Looking up from the book of Italian recipes she'd been perusing, Chikage smiled at the sight of the children and picked up the camera on the table before her.

As she watched, little Kaito finally made it to the other toddler's side and was now examining Shinichi with the curiosity he seemed to have for everything. Suddenly he reached out with one hand and grabbed the pacifier, yanking it out of its owner's mouth.

Little Shinichi's eyes popped open as he dropped his stuffed animal in surprise. Glancing around in an attempt to figure out what had happened, his gaze landed on Kaito who had sat down and put the stolen pacifier in his own mouth. Big, blue eyes began to water moments before little Shinichi burst into tears.

Chikage got up quickly and hurried to the children's couch.

"There, there," she said soothingly, picking the stuffed dove up off of the floor and carefully tucking it back into the bawling child's arms. Little Shinichi grabbed the fluffy toy and clung to it, but the volume of his cries didn't really subside.

"Kaito, look what you did," she sighed, trying in vain to quiet the distraught child.

Little Kaito glanced up at his mother then turned to take note of the wailing Shinichi. He paused and contemplated the situation for several moments before starting to crawl back over. A small hand reached out and curled into soft, black hair. Shinichi's wails diminished temporarily in favor of blinking up at the other boy in confusion, at which point Kaito promptly pulled the pacifier out of his own mouth and stuck it back in Shinichi's. The sniffling stopped. Satisfied by this outcome, Kaito glanced back at his own spot all the way on the other end of the couch. Deciding that he had exhausted his crawl quota for the hour, he settled down on the cushions next to Shinichi and wrapped his arms around the dove as well. It was certainly big enough to share.

. . . . . . . . .

"…I'd never seen Shinichi cry that loudly before," she recalled then smiled, her gaze drifting to the third photo in the set where the two toddlers were both holding the giant, stuffed dove.

"Don't you still have that old stuffed animal?" Yukiko asked, turning to her son who sank a little lower in his seat. "I remember seeing it on top of the dresser in your room."

"It's on top of the dresser in our room now," Kaito supplied.

"Can we please talk about something else now?" Shinichi groaned, trying in vain to hide his blush (which was starting to feel like it would never go away).

**TBC**

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><p><strong>A.N<strong>: This is to everyone who still has a stuffed animal from when they were little ^^ Well, I have a final exam to take real soon, so wish me luck! And again, suggestions are welcome/helpful.


	3. Dance with Me

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

**Answers:**

_Does KID exist in this universe_: I forgot to answer this one last time. Technically it's a yes, but not in the usual way. You'll have to wait to see what that means.

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><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Dance with Me**_

"Hey Shin-chan, do you remember this party?"

Peeking out from behind the protective shield of his fingers, Shinichi eyed the next photograph for a moment before making a noise of acknowledgment. That elaborate décor and all those glittering lights were characteristic of one of those big parties their parents so loved. Though he usually couldn't avoid being dragged to them, the number of times anyone had been able to get him on the dance floor were slim to none so this one wasn't hard to place…

. . . . . . . . .

There were three steps to every party in Shinichi's life. Step one, the dress up. During that step he was generally trapped in a room with his mother while she used him as a life-sized doll. Step two was the journey to wherever the party was being held during which he would find reasons why they should let him go home and his parents would rebuff them all. The last step was the party itself, which was where he was now.

This party had been going on for what felt to Shinichi like hours—endless hours of mind numbing boredom, to be exact. It wasn't that he had anything against parties per se, parties kept his parents occupied and out of his hair, so really he appreciated them—just so long as he didn't have to participate in them. But his parents' favorite part of any party was to drag their son around with them and embarrass him in as many ways as possible in front of all their friends (well, he knew that wasn't exactly their intention, not all the time anyway, but it didn't stop it from happening). Sometimes he was actually quite surprised that he could hold his head up at all considering the kinds of things he'd been subjected to by them over the years, but at least he had his success as a detective to fall back on. It was something to cling to when his parents got particularly carried away. Though even there his father's hobby of poking as many holes as possible in any theory he came up with had ingrained in him an overpowering urge to triple check _everything_ before voicing his opinions (admittedly this had its upside—namely preventing mistakes where they would really matter).

With that in mind this was actually a good party, he decided. His parents were on the other side of the room and not paying attention to him. In fact they had been ignoring him since the party had started. Strange that, but he certainly wasn't going to complain.

Just another hour or so and he could probably leave without being stopped or having to listen to his mother nag him about it afterward.

Sighing, he picked up his sixth—or was it seventh?—glass of apple cider and turned his mind back to the last novel he'd been reading.

In a much more lively corner of the room, Kaito swept into a bow for the small crowd composed of most of the rest of the teens at the party. They applauded and he grinned. Even as a freshman in high school he had the skills necessary to be a professional magician and, while he wasn't one yet, he reveled in the ability to make his peers gape in amazement.

Latest impromptu show over, the crowd began to disperse. Politely declining several invitations to join the assorted chatting groups, he cast a glance towards the refreshments. Perhaps a snack was in order. But he wasn't actually hungry.

Feeling eyes on him, he glanced around to find his father watching him. He raised an eyebrow inquiringly. He usually couldn't tell when his father was watching him (loathed as he was to admit it) unless the man wanted him to know. The corner of the elder magician's mouth quirked up, probably guessing at his son's thoughts.

Now that he had the boy's attention, Toichi looked pointedly towards the mostly empty tables. Kaito followed his gaze to find a familiar head of black hair slouched at said tables. He glanced back at his father who quirked an eyebrow at him in a sort of 'what are you still doing standing there?' kind of way.

Kaito resisted the extremely powerful urge to roll his eyes. It wasn't that he didn't like Shinichi, quite the contrary, and at least he knew he wouldn't have to deal with any parental objections, but there was just something fundamentally irritating (not to mention weird) about having their parents constantly sticking their long noses into their business. And he could see that it was unnerving Shinichi far more than anything he could possibly do by himself. Still, no point wasting the moment.

Shinichi was fairly sure he'd figured out how the rest of the mystery in the novel he'd been reading would go when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced up to find Kaito standing beside his seat. He blinked in surprise. Last he'd seen the magician had been caught up in the middle of what looked like a rather complicated show. He hadn't thought Kaito would be done with it so quickly. Or maybe more time had passed than he had realized.

"What is it?" he inquired, going to take another sip of his drink before he realized that his glass was empty. Again.

Kaito chuckled at the other boy's expression. "So how many cups does that make it?"

"Going on eight, I think," Shinichi sighed, reaching for the nearest bottle of cider. The motion was aborted however when Kaito picked up the bottle and set it out of his reach. He frowned, shooting the magician a betrayed look which was ignored.

"You don't seriously plan on just sitting here the whole time, do you?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Shinichi replied without any hesitation. "It's not like there's anything else to do."

"You could dance," the magician suggested, offering him a hand. "How about it?"

Shinichi stared at the hand for a moment before raising his gaze to the other's face a bit uncertainly. "Dance? With you?"

"Well~," the magician drawled, pulling on a rather wounded look, "I suppose you could dance with someone else if you'd prefer."

Shinichi turned a shade pink. "N—no, it's not that. It's just…"

Kaito's expression morphed into a cheery smile. "Come on then. The next song should be starting soon. Besides," he added, leaning down so that he could whisper into Shinichi's ear. "If we don't dance at least once neither of us is going to get a moment's rest when we get home."

Shinichi took another look at his empty glass before setting it down and gingerly accepting Kaito's proffered hand. "I guess it wouldn't hurt…"

Kaito frowned in mock offense. "Do you have so little faith in my abilities?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Well, no matter," the magician declared, stepping out onto the dance floor and pulling Shinichi to him. "I'm sure I can convince you of my aptitude."

. . . . . . . . .

…"You two were so cute!" Yukiko squealed happily.

Shinichi stared at his mother's beaming face for a moment before sudden realization dawned. "You—you guys _planned_ all that didn't you? Ugh, don't answer that, I _know_ you did."

**TBC**

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><p><strong>A.N<strong>: In case it was confusing, this scene is set before the photo from chapter one. I'm starting to think a chronological list may eventually be in order ^^


	4. Hide Me

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Hide Me**_

Two boys were peering down through the leafy boughs of a tree. They looked like they were probably in elementary school. Their expressions however weren't so much curious as stricken.

"When was this?" Kaito asked, puzzled. "I don't remember anything like that."

"I do," Shinichi grumbled. "Mom must have taken that one."

"Guilty as charged," the woman in question laughed…

. . . . . . . . .

Shinichi panted as he ran as fast as he could down the sidewalk. He didn't particularly care where he was going as long as it was away from his house and the woman inside it who called herself his mother. Only ten minutes ago she had come into the library where he'd been reading with that excited smile on her face that meant bad things were about to happen.

And he'd been right.

He shuddered at the recollection of the mountain of clothes his mother had been hovering over. There had to be at least fifty different sets of outfits in there! His mother loved buying clothes, and she especially liked buying what she called 'cute outfits' to try out on her son. The thing was she didn't seem to care whether said outfits were for boys or for girls. She had voiced the opinion that with children so young there really wasn't any difference so it shouldn't matter. And why couldn't she see how her little Shin-chan looked all dressed up? He was _her_ son after all; she had the right to dress him how she pleased!

Personally, Shinichi didn't agree with this line of reasoning one bit. Who could possibly enjoy being forced in and out of dozens upon dozens of different clothes for hours on end? The problem of course was that his opinion didn't matter. He used to run to his father for help when Yukiko got into one of her let's-play-dress-up moods, but his father had a tendency to hide a smile—and hand him back to his mother. Shinichi had theorized that his father was sacrificing him to the gleeful clutches of Kudo Yukiko in order to escape them himself (he didn't find out until he was older that Yuusaku really just found the whole thing amusing).

He wondered sometimes if everyone's parents were so weird or if he was just unlucky that way. And then he'd remember Toichi-san. He was pretty weird too, though it was a different kind of weird (more tricky and mysterious and less flat out insane). So maybe it was just a parent thing.

Stumbling to a stop under a tree in the park, he doubled over with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. A glance back the way he had come revealed that his mother was nowhere to be seen. He breathed out a sigh of relief. He loved his mother, he really did, but her idea of a good time was just…well, not his idea of a good time.

"Psst! Shin-chan!"

He jumped, spinning around in a circle so quickly he made himself dizzy. He could have sworn he'd heard his mother's favorite nickname for him, though the voice didn't sound like her. Still…had to be careful. But there was no one anywhere in sight. The nearest human beings were an old lady and her two grandchildren about three hundred yards away playing ball near one of the park benches.

"Up here!" the voice said again, and this time Shinichi realized that it was coming from above his head.

Tilting his head back, he found himself looking into a familiar, grinning face looking down at him from the branches of the tree beneath which he was standing. "Kai?"

"Why're you running?" the other boy asked curiously. "Is something chasing you?"

"It's my mom," Shinichi explained, casting another look over his shoulder. Still no sign of her.

"You can come hide up here," Kaito suggested.

Shinichi thought this over for a moment then nodded and began to scramble up the tree. He nearly slipped a few times but eventually he reached the lower branches where Kaito helped pull him up.

That was when a familiar voice rang out.

"Shin-chan~!" it cried.

Both boys froze, staring wide-eyed at each other as the voice drew nearer. Then Kaito grabbed Shinichi's hand and started climbing higher in the tree, carefully pulling the other boy along with him. Finally they had put enough branches between themselves and the ground for said ground to be completely obscured by leaves. Looking down, Shinichi couldn't repress a certain amount of nervousness. If they fell from up here it was definitely going to hurt a lot.

"Shin-chan!" his mother's voice called out again, this time from right below their tree. The boys sat like statues. Glancing over, Kaito would have sworn that Shinichi had even stopped breathing. "Huh, I wonder where he could have gone," Yukiko wondered aloud. "I could have sworn I saw him coming this way." As she talked, her voice grew more and more distant until finally they couldn't hear her anymore.

Shinichi let out a breath of relief, shoulders sagging as he leaned back against the trunk of the tree. "That was close…"

"What did she want this time?" Kaito asked curiously.

Shinichi grimaced. "New clothes."

He didn't elaborate but his companion nodded sagely, knowing exactly what he meant. He'd seen Shinichi get caught a few times for New Clothes Time (and he privately thought it was kind of funny, though the number of said clothes did generally seem a bit excessive).

"So what are you doing here?" Shinichi asked, changing the subject.

"Practicing," Kaito said promptly, face splitting into a grin.

Bright blue eyes blinked back at him. "Practicing for what?"

"My climbing," the other elaborated, waving a hand at the branches all around them. "Then we won't need Tou-san next time we get stuck on the roof!"

Shinichi nodded. He remembered Toichi-san scaling the outside of the Kudo Manor that time he and Kaito had gotten themselves stuck on the roof. Though he couldn't remember how they had gotten onto the roof in the first place… They'd been up there for a whole hour before the adults got home and Toichi-san came up to rescue them.

"So do you think it's safe now?" he asked, peering downward. He couldn't see anything through the leaves below.

"Dunno. Let's go check."

Together, they made their way back down to the lower branches and pushed aside the screen of foliage—to stare right into Kudo Yukiko's smiling face.

"Shin-chan, there you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

. . . . . . . . .

…"Oh, now I remember," Kaito laughed. "Some things never change."

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Shalyr's got the next one covered, but I probably won't be able to put it up for a few weeks because I'm leaving in a few days on a trip where I won't have internet access ^^ Anyhow, see you all then! I'll put up another chapter of Faces before I go though, and hopefully get more of Travelers written.


	5. Ebarrassing Date 1

**V. Shalyr**: Okay, this one's a response to several requests that we received. ^_^

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Embarrassing Date #1**_

Shinichi took one look at the photograph on the next page and attempted to slam the album shut only for Kaito to snatch it from his hands.

"Oh no you don't, I _like_ that picture."

Boy did he ever. They had another copy of that same photo in their bedroom that Kaito wouldn't let him throw away.

"But, _Kaito_," Shinichi said in a furious whisper, making a grab at the book. "It's—it's—"

"Cute," Yukiko finished for him, smiling wistfully.

"No!"

Peering curiously over at the picture in question, Toichi grinned—the kind of grin most people who knew him and his son well had learned to run away from. "I don't remember seeing _that_ one. I assume that was your work, Yukiko."

"One of my best, if I do say so myself." She beamed.

"Most definitely."

Shinichi glared at his father for agreeing with her. It was unfair how it seemed like the only parent he could count on to back him up in any way was Kaito's mother. The idea of "shame" simply didn't register in the other three's vocabularies. Granted, in this case, it didn't stop Chikage from joining Yukiko in cooing over the photograph in question.

Did they really have to talk about this like it was some kind of—of _art project_?…

. . . . . . . . .

To Shinichi's disappointment, his mother's New Clothes Times had persisted into his high school life, albeit with a few additional quirks added in to compensate for the increase in years. Of course as Shinichi had gotten older, capturing him for these outfitting sessions only got harder. Unfortunately, his mother was a very talented woman.

And so it was that one Friday afternoon found him standing in the middle of his bedroom trying to die of mortification.

"Oh, stop complaining, Shin-chan. I don't have a daughter to try it on so you'll have to do."

"Mom…" Shinichi sighed, sneaking a look at his reflection in the full-length mirror and wincing before quickly looking away. The deep blue dress wasn't hideous by any means. In fact, his mother usually had surprisingly good taste in clothes. It was just that he would have appreciated it better if he _hadn't_ been wearing it. Complete with a wig, expert makeup, and certain additions in the right places, no one would have guessed that Kudo Yukiko in fact had a son.

Oh why couldn't she have settled for some dolls?

His mother had really outdone herself this time. He rather suspected it was her way of alleviating stress after a major movie production. If he could confirm that that was the case, he'd see if he could make arrangements to be out of town next time. He could go somewhere nice and far away—like maybe on the other side of the world. Or maybe hiding nearby would be less expected and so more effective?

"Mom, I'm supposed to be going out soon." And there was simply no way he was going to still be wearing this when Kaito got there. He just _knew _it would give the magician _ideas_.

"Ooh, is it a date?"

"Of course not," Shinichi said a little too quickly, his face going pink despite his best efforts. He'd never been a very good liar.

His mother squealed. "And you weren't going to tell me? Shame on you. I'm your mother! If you don't tell me, who are you going to tell?"

No one, Shinichi thought, or at least most definitely _not_ his mother.

"Mom, I don't have time for this," he hissed, but before he could say another word, he heard the front door swing open.

"Shin-chan?"

Damn, it was too late. And leave it to Kaito to pick the lock and enter a person's house without warning. Shinichi blamed that habit on Toichi-san who did the same thing on an equally regular basis. The two could really be disturbingly alike sometimes.

A moment later, Kaito appeared in Shinichi's doorway and stopped dead in his tracks. The magician blinked in surprise, stared, and then a grin that set off alarm bells in Shinichi's head began to spread across his face. "Aww, Shin-chan, you should have told me you were going to dress up. I could have come over to watch."

The fact that his best friend and now boyfriend had absolutely no sense of shame was probably Toichi-san's fault too. Perhaps that meant it was genetic.

Shinichi glared, folding his arms across his chest. "Don't you even think about it. I am _not_ wearing this out."

There was just no way.

Yukiko beamed. "What a wonderful idea. After all, it would be such a waste to go through all that work and not show off the results."

"Definitely," Kaito agreed, leaning in to give his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. "You look beautiful. I wholeheartedly approve."

While Shinichi was trying to figure out if he felt flattered or betrayed by this—probably both—Kaito took his hand (partly because he just wanted to and partly so Shinichi couldn't run away) and offered Yukiko a dazzling smile. "We'll be on our way then."

"Of course, just—can I take a picture before you two go?"

"No," Shinichi cut in, "absolutely not. I won't."

He hated posing for pictures enough as it was without being dressed up for them.

"Aww, _please_? I promise that no one but the family is ever going to see it." She paused then added, "Or I could take it later…"

_While you're not watching_, going unsaid but loud enough for Shinichi to hear in the highly suggestive silence.

"Of course you can," Kaito said quickly, "as long as I get a copy too."

"Kaito!"

"What? You'd rather she was the only one who got to keep a copy? How unfair would that be?"

And that was how Shinichi found himself standing in the front yard of the Kudo Manor dressed like a young lady about to go to a dance with her—er, his—future partner grinning like a lunatic at the camera. Just as Yukiko lifted her camera, Kaito turned the detective around in his arms and pulled him flush up against his body before tilting his head back to catch his lips in an actual kiss.

And that was when the camera went off.

. . . . . . . . .

…Sometimes, Shinichi really had to wonder at the kinds of people he had in his life. "Insane" didn't even really begin to cover it. It was more like mad and bizarre and eccentric all rolled into one with a whole lot of not-necessarily-complimentary terms.

"Hey, at least it's never boring," Kaito said, having guessed what was running through his mind at the expression on his face.

And of course they couldn't have _that_.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>V. Shalyr<strong>: I wanted to write some events from the actual outing, but 1) I liked where this ended and 2) I wasn't sure what events would be more interesting. If you have any ideas, please let us know!


	6. A Budding Escape Artist

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: A Budding Escape Artist**_

"Toichi has one like this next one from when he was little," Chikage said with a rather mischievous look in her eyes.

The man in question coughed lightly. "Well, what can I say?"

"Now I've got to see this," Kaito remarked, flipping the page. He stared at the picture for a minute then burst out laughing. Shinichi eyed him strangely for a moment before leaning over to see what all the fuss was about.

A little Kaito stood balanced on top of what looked like the railings of a baby pen. It looked terribly unsafe but the toddler didn't seem bothered in the slightest if the huge grin on his face was anything to go by…

. . . . . . . . .

The Kuroba house, being home to a magician, was filled with a king's ransom's worth of tools ranging from the apparently mundane to the nameless contraptions no one in their right minds would want to know the uses for. As such, the Kurobas had deemed it safer to get a baby pen when their son had started crawling. He was, by nature, a very curious child, and Chikage shuddered to imagine all the terrible things that could happen to an unsuspecting toddler coming across some of her husband's more explosive tools. So they bought the biggest baby pen that would fit inside their living room and all the nice, safe baby toys went inside while the not so safe magician's toys (Toichi protested to this terminology but the protests died under his wife's pointed look) went outside.

The plan worked for a while until one fateful afternoon. Chikage had left Toichi to watch their son as she made a quick trip to the grocery store. The magician himself had a big show coming up so he'd brought his work to the living room. He was going over the stage setup for the show when the sound of happy burbling drew his attention away from the papers to his son. He blinked in surprise when he saw that some time in the last ten minutes or so the boy had managed to climb up the side of the pen and was now balanced on top of the railing, smiling happily.

He laughed and applauded. "That's very good Kaito. I see your sense of balance is certainly good."

Little Kaito burbled in excitement and Toichi smiled.

"So can you get down too?"

The toddler seemed to give this question a moment of serious consideration and it looked like he had just made up his mind when there was a gasp from the living room entrance.

"Kaito! Get down from there!" There was a series of thumps as Chikage dropped her grocery bags and made a beeline for the toddler. She scooped him up off of the rails and turned to glare at her husband.

"Why were you just sitting there?"

"Uh, well…" The magician offered her a placating smile as his mind raced. Somehow he didn't think 'I was just letting him practice' would go over too well at the moment. "He seemed to be having so much fun. Besides, I could've caught him if he fell."

Chikage continued to give him a rather disapproving look for several minutes before she turned to put Kaito back among the baby toys.

. . . . . . . . .

…"But after that he just kept climbing out. We tried all sorts of things but every time we turned around he'd be gone. The only time he'd stay put was when we put Shin-chan in with him, and I think that was because he couldn't climb out with him." Chikage grinned, remembering the first time she'd put the two toddlers in the pen together after Kaito had learned how to get out of it. She'd been making dinner in the kitchen and glanced through the door into the living room to find little Kaito halfway up the pen wall. She'd opened her mouth to scold him but paused when Kaito suddenly stopped and looked back at his pen mate. Shinichi just sat in the middle of a collection of puzzle blocks, watching. Kaito had hesitated for a moment then made his way back down without being told and went back to join his favorite playmate in his game. "Sometimes I really thought he liked disappearing just to make us look for him."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," Shinichi mused. "No wonder I remember being put in there so often. I guess that proves some tendencies are genetic."

"You mean talents," both magicians said in unison before sharing identically wide grins. Everyone else in the room felt a sudden, inexplicable chill.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: I'm working on something a little more serious, but it's also a little longer than these average at so there'll probably be another short one or two between. Anyhow, see you next time! Again, suggestions are welcome.


	7. The Duplicate

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: The Duplicate**_

"Let's move on," Shinichi said a bit hastily, taking the album from Kaito and turning the page. He had a brief moment of déjà vu when his eyes were greeted by the familiar view of Teitan High's soccer field. Man it felt like forever since he'd last seen that place, and yet at the same time it felt like he'd been there just yesterday. Time was strange that way.

On the left stood Kaito wearing the soccer team uniform for Teitan and on the left stood Shinichi with a hand over his eyes. Between them, with his jaw hanging open and his eyes bugging out, was Teitan's soccer coach. Around the edges of the picture other Teitan uniforms could be seen adorning similarly shocked players.

Ah yes, Shinichi definitely remembered this one. It was the day that Teitan High met Kuroba Kaito for the first time. He knew for a fact that no one in the soccer team from that year had ever forgotten the incident…

. . . . . . . . .

Shinichi was late.

Kaito had searched the stadium from end to end—including all the off limits rooms and even the janitor's closet—but he hadn't found so much as a hint that Shinichi was there. Which was a bit odd really. This was, after all, Shinichi's first soccer game since entering high school. The aspiring detective could be forgetful about a lot of things from his birthday on down but one thing he never forgot about was a soccer game.

That meant he'd probably been waylaid by either his parents or the police who were starting more and more these days to ask him for help on difficult cases.

Standing on the last row of the bleachers around the field, Kaito drummed his fingers on the rails and hid a frown behind his Poker Face. Sports were all well and good, but he'd really only come to see Shinichi. He had also been promised a tour of Teitan High! And they were supposed to get dinner at that café with the heavenly chocolate cake after that (well, Shinichi didn't know about that part yet, but he was fairly sure the detective wouldn't object). But, for all that to happen, Shinichi had to actually show up.

"Hey!" someone exclaimed from right by Kaito's right shoulder. If he hadn't been the highly trained actor that he was, the magician might have jumped. Instead he glanced around to find the man he recognized as Shinichi's coach scowling fiercely at him.

"Yes?" he asked, slightly confused by the scowl. He was accustomed to being scowled at, but usually only after he'd pulled a trick or maybe said something entertaining. But he hadn't done anything or even talked to anyone yet since arriving on the Teitan campus.

"Why haven't you changed into your uniform yet?" the coach boomed, grabbing Kaito by the back of his collar and proceeding to drag him towards the locker rooms without a moment of hesitation. "The game starts in two minutes!"

"I think you're making a mistake," Kaito tried to tell the man (who, he thought, must have mistaken him for Shinichi) but his friendly piece of information fell on deaf ears. In moments he had been pushed into the locker room and ordered to get ready and be out on the field or else.

"Did you forget your uniform?" one of Shinichi's teammates asked, obviously noting his lack of a bag (if not much else. Apparently the shortness of time, or maybe pre-game jitters, was giving the whole team tunnel vision). Without waiting for an answer he pushed the magician towards an unmarked door and instructed him to, again, hurry up. Apparently there were spare uniforms of all sizes in the equipment room just in case students forgot their own. Well, that was convenient.

Rather bemused, Kaito changed into a spare team uniform. After all, Shinichi wasn't around. He had to entertain himself somehow.

He made it outside just barely in time and joined the team where they were gathered around their coach. The same boy who'd pointed him to the spare uniforms glanced at him then blinked.

"Did you get taller?"

"And what did you do to your hair?" one of the other players added, staring at Kaito's flyaway mop of dark brown locks.

Obviously the haze of urgency had thinned enough for them to realize that this wasn't exactly the Shinichi they remembered. He offered them a sheepish smile and pitched his voice to mimic Shinichi's.

"Bad hair day."

"All of you listen up!" the coach barked, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "We want to start the season strong so we're going to win today, you got that? Now I want you all to remember, we—"

"Wait!" a familiar voice called out and everyone in the team turned as one to stare in shock as Shinichi came running across the field to them. He doubled over panting when he reached them. "Sorry I'm late."

His declaration was met by stunned silence.

Confused, he straightened up and looked around. Then his eyes landed on Kaito who was grinning at him—wearing a Teitan soccer uniform.

"Kaito!" he groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead in exasperated understanding. "What are you doing?"

"I just thought I'd fill in for you until you got back," the magician replied, unrepentant as always. "Your coach asked me to. Isn't that right, Coach?"

The man in question only gaped, looking from Kaito to Shinichi and back again. "You—you—I thought—"

"I didn't know you had a brother," one of Shinichi's teammates remarked, turning to Shinichi who gave him a look that suggested he thought the boy had lost his mind.

"He is _not_ my brother!"

. . . . . . . . .

…"I thought the poor man would have a heart attack," Yuusaku recalled.

"Right, so you took pictures," Shinichi said dryly. "How very concerned of you."

"I had my phone in my other hand," the man replied, undaunted.

"I'm going to make some coffee," Shinichi declared, handing the album back to Kaito and standing up. He had the feeling he'd be needing the coffee. "Does anyone else want anything?"

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N: <strong>So yeah, the next one will be on Kaito's debut ^^. And I'm still trying to get Shalyr to write more. Anyhow, see ya. **  
><strong>


	8. Spotlight

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Spotlight**_

When Shinichi got back from the kitchen with a tray of drinks in hand he was kind of surprised to see Kaito openly glaring at his father who had apprehended the album. The detective set the tray on the table and glanced at the open album to see a photograph of a young man in a white suit and top hat standing on what looked like empty air beneath the night sky with his arms flung out to either side and a sharp-edged grin stretched across his face.

"You didn't honestly think we hadn't noticed what you were up to, did you?" Toichi was asking, his eyebrows raised. "If you really don't want people to know about your plans, don't leave them lying where they can be seen."

Kaito cast his father a flat look. "Indeed." He'd been very careful to store everything he'd worked on for that show behind a hidden panel he'd created in the wall of the space beneath his bed. Unless his father had developed x-ray vision without his knowledge, there was no way he could have seen those plans by accident…

. . . . . . . . .

"You know, you could talk to your father about this," Shinichi said, watching Kaito pouring over the diagrams strewn all over the former's bedroom floor. Shinichi himself was perched on his bed because it was the only spot in his room that wasn't currently being occupied by papers. "He _is_ a professional after all."

"You forget, the whole point is _not_ to talk to him about this," Kaito replied, looking up with a lopsided grin. If possible, his wild, brown hair looked even more of a mess than it usually did. "Hand me that book over there would you?"

Shinichi obliged, not bothering to ask the magician why he refused to consult his father about setting up this show of his. Kaito admired his father greatly—and for good reason, the man wasn't famous for nothing—but he didn't want to be his father's clone. If he was going to make it, it was going to be because he was a brilliant performer in his own right, not because he was Kuroba Toichi's son.

"I take it that's also what the pseudonym and Halloween costume are for?" Shinichi inquired, eyeing the white top hat sitting on his desk. There was a dove sitting on it, preening its feathers. On the table beside it lay a monocle, the lens gleaming in the light pouring in through the window.

"Yep. Besides, it's cool, right? Nobody's going to know who I am."

"I guess… But you're going to want them to know who you are one day, right? So you'll have to tell them eventually."

"Eventually," Kaito agreed. "When I'm famous and no one can say I'm riding on Tou-san's name."

Shinichi nodded in understanding. Lying down on his stomach, he reached over the edge of the bed and picked up one of the papers on the floor. It was covered in a wild scrawl that he couldn't even begin to read, meaning Kaito had probably scribbled whatever it was in even more of a hurry than he had everything else. "Are you sure you don't want to wait a few more years? I mean, we've just started high school. You're setting yourself up for a real mountain of work here."

"Aww, are you worried about me?"

Shinichi blushed on reflex and would have thrown the paper at his friend if he hadn't known it wouldn't make it to its target. "I'm just pointing it out since you're obviously too in love with this whole idea to notice practical problems like time being limited."

"Hmm, says he who solves cases after school and on weekends," the magician laughed. "Really Shin-chan, you should have more faith in me. You're talking to a master here!"

"It seems to me you have enough faith in yourself for the both of us."

"But it means more when it's coming from you~."

"How did you manage to schedule a show with no backing and no reputation anyway?" Shinichi asked hastily, changing the subject.

Kaito grinned, indigo eyes dancing with wicked mischief. "Let's just say I paid the theater manager a visit. He was impressed by my skills and agreed to give me a chance."

"You didn't scare him into it, did you?" Shinichi asked suspiciously.

Kaito widened his eyes in mock horror at the suggestion. "Would I do something like that?"

The detective stared back. "Yes."

Kaito held the wounded look for a moment longer before laughing. "Okay, so maybe I would, but I didn't. He really was impressed. He and his wife have both agreed to help with the advertising too."

"His _wife_?" Shinichi repeated, incredulous. "What, you mean you visited them at _home_?" He knew Kaito had a tendency to let himself into places, but surely even he wouldn't waltz into someone else's home uninvited just to chat about scheduling a magic show.

"You don't have to sound so mortified you know," the magician drawled, sounding far too amused. "She was visiting him at the theater. Lucky for me really. Turns out she's one of those radio newscasters so she'll be able to slip a word in about me there."

"That certainly was coincidental," Shinichi agreed, though he wasn't as surprised as some people might have been. Kaito had always been superhumanly lucky. It was why no one who'd known him for more than a little while would play chance based games against him. It just wasn't a good idea.

"I still have to do some promoting though. And get all the setting up done myself. I don't suppose you'd help me?"

Shinichi sighed, lowering the paper he'd been trying to decipher. "All right. Just don't expect me to get up on stage or anything."

A spark lit in the magician's eyes but before he could say anything they both heard the sound of the front door opening downstairs. Kaito cursed quietly and leapt to his feet. With a snap and a whirl of smoke and fluttering papers, all the plans and lists vanished. By the time Yukiko poked her head into her son's room to say hello the two were playing chess.

The following weeks were hectic. Half their preparations had to be done at unholy hours in some rather strange places lest their horribly nosy parents walk in on them. Three days before the show, Kaito intercepted Shinichi on his way home from a consultation at the police station and dragged him to the busiest shopping district in the city.

Seated by one of the windows on the second floor of a café famous for its cakes, Shinichi idly prodded his slice of strawberry cake with his fork as he watched Kaito all but vibrating in his seat. "You're not going to get arrested for anything you're planning are you? Because if you are, I think I have the right to be warned."

"I doubt it," Kaito said with a careless wave as he downed half his hot chocolate in one go. "The point is to grab people's attention. I'm not out to hurt anyone."

Shinichi opened his mouth to say that that wasn't exactly what he'd been asking about but he found himself unable to speak for the forkful of chocolate cake that had been shoved into his mouth.

"Just wait and watch," Kaito told him as Shinichi glared at him. "You helped put some of this together, remember?"

Shinichi swallowed to clear his mouth. "Yes, but I also remember how you never told me what any of it was for."

"What would be the fun in that?"

Shinichi sighed, taking a long gulp of his coffee. "I'm being serious here."

"Just stop worrying. I've got everything under control."

"If you say so…"

When all the lights in the shopping district simultaneously went out most people's first reaction was that there had been problems at the power plant and they were having a normal blackout. Then the eerie, blue lights had started flickering and dancing through the air like ghosts coming out to play and they'd realized that there was more to it than that. A few people screamed but most were too entranced by the twisting, shimmering streamers of light to do more than watch. And then the lone figure in white had appeared standing far above all their heads like a ghost himself. Shinichi watched the performance unfold through the café window, not at all surprised to discover that Kaito was no longer seated across from him.

When it was over and the usual lights of the area flickered back to life, Shinichi sat back in his seat and looked over to find that Kaito had reappeared in his seat and was just polishing off the rest of his chocolate cake. All around them he could hear the murmur of voices as people discussed what they had seen and speculated over the reality of it all.

"I think it's safe to say that you made an impression," the detective observed.

Kaito grinned and winked at him. "Always do. You know, I'm starting to think I should work this kind of outdoors stuff into my work more in the future. It's fun and adds to the intrigue."

"Just make sure you put anything you change back to the way it was beforehand when you finish," Shinichi reminded him.

"Yeah, I know." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Don't get myself arrested. Really, you don't honestly think they'd even be able to arrest me, do you?"

Shinichi frowned. "That's not the point."

"You worry too much," Kaito said, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm going to see what else they have. Do you want anything?"

"More coffee would be nice."

. . . . . . . . .

…After that the mysterious magician who called himself KID had made quite a stir throughout Tokyo then Japan. Kaito had indeed decided to hold more outdoors shows. When people had grown more familiar with him he had begun to announce his shows through small riddles posted in the papers and any venues who wanted to invite him to perform imitated him and took to printing their invitations in the papers so that he could reply in kind. Sometimes Shinichi wondered if Kaito treated the whole thing a little too much like a game, but he knew that as long as Kaito was having fun he'd do well. He was just that kind of person.

They had officially let their parents in on the scheme a few months after that first show, though Shinichi had always suspected they'd known all along. Now he knew he'd been right. Not, granted, that they had expected any of their parents not to notice once the news of that first show got out, but they'd put a lot of effort into hiding the operation before its official execution. Kaito especially had wanted it to be a surprise. It was a bit daunting to realize all that effort had been for naught. At least the peanut gallery had had the courtesy not to mention it until now.

"It really was a great idea," Toichi said, somewhat mollifying his son.

"I still have all those articles speculating about who the new magician was," Chikage added, eyes twinkling with mirth. "Did you know, they actually approached your father a few times asking if he knew. But of course he always said he had no idea and you could just see them trying to figure out if he meant it or not."

"I remember when they ran that poll about it," Yukiko laughed. "That was when they started going international. You had them running in circles with that French incident."

"I remember that announcement riddle no once could solve," Yuusaku put in. "The one they were going to the detectives over. I think you got a bit carried away there but I believe you picked up some more intellectual followers from it."

Kaito coughed lightly into his hand. "I was afraid no one was going to show up to that one."

"I did warn you it would be too hard for most people," Shinichi pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, but it's no fun if they're all easy. Anyhow, shall we move on?"

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: As promised, a longer one. Should be an actually long one coming up in a few. And that's what we decided to do with KID. Anyhow, I have to get going. See ya!


	9. Incessant

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Incessant**_

"So what did you lot's twisted sense of humor find so amusing about me talking on the phone?" Shinichi asked dryly, earning himself a smack from his mother.

"You shouldn't talk to your elders like that," she admonished. "It's rude."

"It would probably help to think about it as a set with this other one," Chikage explained, gesturing to the photo on the opposite page—which was—surprise, surprise—Kaito on the phone. This one however had what appeared to be the Eifel Tower in the background glittering bright against a night sky…

. . . . . . . . .

Ensconced in one of the armchairs in the Kudo Manor's living room, Shinichi flipped idly through the pages of the novel he'd chosen to write his book report on. It was slightly irritating that it was the summer before his first year of high school and he already had homework, but at least there wasn't much of it. And he liked reading so technically he was doing something he would have done anyway. The only problem was that the variety of books they had been given to choose from left much to be desired. Well, the sooner he got it done, the sooner he could forget about it and go read something else.

He'd just picked up his pen to make a few notes when the phone on the desk beside his notebook began to ring. Letting out a short sigh, he switched targets and picked up the phone.

"Mo—"

"Shin-chan!" an exuberant voice exclaimed, cutting him off before he could complete the traditional greeting. "How are you?"

Shinichi glanced at the clock on the wall. "Kaito…you called me one hour ago. What do you think could have changed?"

"Dunno, isn't that why people call? So they can find out?"

"I…guess so…"

"So? What are you doing?"

"I'm still working on the book report I was working on the last two times you called."

"Still?"

Shinichi rolled his eyes despite the fact that he knew Kaito couldn't see him. "It's kind of hard to finish when I keep getting interrupted. Aren't you supposed to be helping your dad prepare for his next show?"

"Oh, we finished that ages ago. He's just calling the performance hall now to hash out a few details. It's not all that fun to listen in on, to be honest, but the show's going to be awesome."

"Are they ever not?"

"Nope." Kaito laughed. "We should really come here together some time. The view at night is great. I can see the Eifel Tower from my window right now in fact. It's all glittering lights and everything—shorter than I thought it'd be though."

"Did you go up it?" Shinichi asked curiously.

"Not yet. I'm thinking about going later tonight—or tomorrow night. Depends on if Tou-ssan needs me to do anything else first I guess."

They chatted idly for a few more minutes before Toichi-san's voice sounded in the background on Kaito's end and he excused himself with a reluctant farewell. Shinichi set the phone back in its holder and let out a quiet breath.

His mom chose that moment to come breezing into the room (he wondered whether her timing was coincidence or if she'd been waiting in the hall for just the right moment—he wouldn't put it past her). "Was that Kaito-kun again?"

He picked up his pen and started writing the notes he'd put on hold when he'd answered the phone. "Yes, it was."

"That makes it, what, four times today?"

Shinichi nodded, eyeing his mother warily. There was something about her smile that was putting him on edge. Kaito had been gone on the trip to France with his father for only three days but he'd called nearly five times as many times as he'd been gone days.

"It's making it hard to finish writing this," he muttered, turning another page of his book. "It'd be nice if he waited a little longer between calls. I might actually be able to finish reading this then."

"Aw Shin-chan, it just means he misses you," his mother admonished, hiding a giggle behind her hand.

"Or he's bored and doesn't have anything else to do."

"You know that can't be it. Kaito-kun's very good at finding ways to amuse himself."

That, Shinichi had to admit, was true. Kaito was a showman by nature, but the person he was actually best at entertaining was himself.

"But that just means he really shouldn't be calling at all. Even if Toichi-san gets a discount for long distance calls they're going to wrack up one terrifying bill if Kai keeps this up."

"Oh come on, give him a break, I know you miss him too. You can't hide it from Mommy! You've been waiting for him to call."

"What? No I haven't," Shinichi objected, flushing under his mother's twinkling gaze.

"Oh really?" She sauntered over to peer down at him. "So if you're not waiting, why have you been doing all your homework and reading next to the phone?"

He frowned at her. "There _is_ a chair and a table here you know."

"True, but I _know_ you usually work in your room or in the library. Go on, admit it!" She laughed at the look on his face as she turned back towards the hallway door. "Tell Kaito-kun I said hi~!"

. . . . . . . . .

…"Aw, I didn't know you were waiting." Kaito grinned and wrapped an arm around the detective in question.

"I _wasn't_," Shinichi protested, but he could see that none of them believed him. And damnit he was blushing again.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N: <strong>Well, hope you all enjoyed it. Anyhow, I'm really tired today so I'm going to get going. See ya!**  
><strong>


	10. Cream Coats

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Cream Coats**_

Shinichi frowned slightly at the blobby, white figures that dominated the next photo. "Are those supposed to be snow sculptures?"

"Doesn't look like snow," Kaito mused. "Looks kind of like cream."

"…Cream sculptures?" Shinichi glanced at their parents. Even for them that would be weird.

"I'd look again if I were you," Chikage laughed lightly…

. . . . . . . . .

The smell that filled the Kudo house that day was nothing short of divine. The creator of this wonderful aroma was one Kuroba Chikage. She had offered to bake cakes for the charity fair being held in front of the Beika Museum and as the Kudo Manor was closer she had acquired the use of their kitchen. Now its temporary ruler, she had ordered the rest of the adults to occupy themselves elsewhere and not get in her way. She had stopped letting her husband into her kitchen while it was in use long ago after the first exploding cake had plastered icing all over her walls. The two Kudo parents weren't quite as prone to making things go bang, but neither of them liked cooking much and there was nothing more irritating in a busy kitchen than idle hands. So it was that Toichi, Yuusaku, and Yukiko had all exiled themselves to other parts of the house. Chikage was a very even tempered woman, but she could be a tyrant in the kitchen and none of them wanted to incur her wrath.

She had decided that she would bake ten cakes for the fair, one for the two families to eat later that day, one for the Kudos to keep, and one to take home. The sugar consumption in her own household was somewhat on the high end after all so she might as well stock up. With everything organized in her mind, she set to work with the determined vigor of a woman with a deadline to meet.

The only occupants of the house who were unaware of the current situation were the two toddlers who had been set down in the living room. Yuusaku had been assigned the duty of keeping an eye on them, but he had run up to the library to fetch a book with the thought that he could read the two a story. Of course, the toddlers didn't know this.

Shinichi, Kaito had discovered, really liked to sleep, so that meant he had to take advantage of every moment that his fellow toddler was awake. Like now. And since the man with the glasses had gone away it seemed like a great time to get moving.

Frankly Shinichi was getting bored. There was nothing new in the living room to explore and most of his toys were upstairs and he was getting tired of waiting for his father to come back. So when Kaito glanced at him before clambering off the couch, he naturally followed. Kaito, he'd learned, had a nose for finding interesting things.

Following the wonderful smells, the two boys made their way into the kitchen. Once there however they were sidetracked by the tablecloth. It was a new one patterned like autumn leaves and Kaito noticed immediately how some of the leaves were shiny. Intrigued, he sat down beside the trailing edge of the cloth and pulled on it, watching as the motion made the leaves shimmer through a range of bronze and gold lights. He grinned and glanced towards Shinichi who was examining another patch of shiny leaf patterning with great curiosity like someone wondering how it worked.

Chikage jumped as a loud clang split the warm, kitchen air and she whirled towards it just in time to see the last tip of the table cloth slither over the far edge of the table. Dropping the egg shell she'd been holding hurriedly into the sink, she made her way to the table and looked over the other side. The table cloth lay pooled amidst a sea of foamy whiteness. The extra large mixing bowl which had once contained thirteen cakes' worth of cream lay almost empty not far from it.

And there, smack in the middle of the mess, sat two cream covered toddlers blinking up at her with wide, startled eyes.

The part of her that was keeping a checklist of everything she had to get done and the timetable she'd constructed groaned inwardly at the thought of having to remake all that special cream, but she couldn't really be angry with the two little boys. Instead she moved around the table and knelt down to check that neither of them had gotten hurt. Although she knew exactly who was going to be cleaning all the cream up off the floor. Upstairs one Kudo Yuusaku sneezed just as he finally decided on which books to bring downstairs.

. . . . . . . . .

…"We wouldn't have gotten off half so easy if it had been one of us," Toichi mused. "You two should be grateful you were so young."

"Indeed," Yuusaku agreed with a grimace. "I was scrubbing that floor for _hours_."

Shinichi snickered. "Now _that_ would be a picture worth having."

"You know, the thought crossed my mind as well," Toichi said with a grin. He snapped his fingers and flipped around the item that appeared in his hands to reveal—a photo of Yuusaku sitting on the Kudo kitchen floor with splotches of cream all over his clothes and hair as the two toddlers sat beside him, apparently busy plastering more cream onto him as he tried to fend them off. This time it was Yuusaku's turn to grumble as the rest of the room had a good long laugh at that.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Not exactly a birthday cake, but it's what came to mind. Anyhow, see you next time!


	11. Ships at Sea

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Ships at Sea**_

Both of them were somewhat surprised to find that the following handful of photographs were all ones they'd taken themselves.

"Remind me to upgrade the security on my computer," Kaito grumbled, shooting his father a pointed look out of the corner of his eyes. "I seem to be having hacking problems again."

"At least we know we weren't being spied on at the time now," Shinichi noted. He'd been starting to wonder about that. Didn't their parents have anything better to do?

"Oh, don't be like that," Yukiko laughed. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you two had fun on that trip."…

. . . . . . . . .

It was summer vacation after their third year of college and the Kurobas and Kudos had decided to spend it in America beginning with some time in San Francisco which included a two week cruise that began and ended in said city and ending with some time in New York with a couple other cities and sites in between. Personally, Shinichi thought the whole plan sounded way too extravagant and a great deal more like work than school ever did. But considering he'd been handed the plane ticket and the itinerary the morning they were to board their flight his opinion didn't count for much. Kaito was just as surprised by the news as Shinichi was, but he hid it much better. In his opinion it all sounded like a grand adventure and a great way to unwind from a year of college courses on top of planning and performing shows.

The plane ride was a pain as most long flights tended to be. Shinichi had brought several books to read but Kaito got bored a mere third of the way into the flight.

"Can't you sleep or something?" Shinichi asked exasperatedly as Kaito shifted restlessly in his seat, jiggling his knees and drumming his fingers until Shinichi could feel his own seat shaking in tandem. It was starting to get distracting. And he was getting to the best part of the book too.

"It's the middle of the day!" Kaito shot back. "And I'm not tired."

"Or you could read. I have four other books with me."

The magician made a face. "I don't feel like reading about dead and dying people."

Shinichi frowned. "Not all mystery novels are about murder you know."

"Maybe, but you can't deny that most of them are. And I know most of yours aren't what we'd call exceptions."

"Well, I brought one of your books too," the detective said a bit irritably, nudging his carryon bag towards Kaito before turning determinedly back to his reading.

"Aw, don't be like that Shin-chan." Kaito rummaged through the bag and produced the aforementioned book. It was one of his favorites. It was also sitting in the bag beside a large pack of mixed chocolates. He grinned and pulled that out too.

"Are these for me?"

Shinichi gave him a wary look. "Only if you promise not to cause any trouble. And the coffee bean ones are mine."

"Deal." Kaito leaned over and kissed him, ignoring the squeak of protest about being in public, before settling back into his seat with his new chocolate and his book. "Thanks."

The chocolates kept peace all the way through the remainder of the flight and Shinichi applauded himself for remembering to bring them. Of course he might regret it later when they got off the plane and all the candy-induced energy kicked in, but at least they hadn't caused a scene on the plane. Next time they went somewhere this far away by plane he was going to ask Toichi-san to give Kaito some tips on staving off boredom in such limiting situations.

The moment they touched down in the San Francisco airport, Kaito promised their parents they'd be at the pier in time for boarding, snagged Shinichi, and headed out for some exploring. They spent a very rushed few hours running to all the major tourist sites of the city. By the end of it Shinichi was exhausted.

"When were we supposed to be at the docks again?" he asked, sinking wearily onto a bench.

"The ship sails in an hour so I'd say we'd better get over there now."

Shinichi couldn't stop the groan that escaped his lips at the thought of having to start moving again so soon.

"I could carry you," Kaito offered, finishing off the soda he'd been drinking.

"_No_," the detective said quickly, edging away from him as his face turned red at the thought. "Don't even think about it."

"Well, if you change your mind, just let me know~."

Their parents had said they'd take care of the luggage and the rest of the formalities so Kaito and Shinichi only had to make sure they got there on time and filled out their individual information, etc. The attendants recognized their names and sent them in. Figuring that their parents were already on board since they hadn't seen them on the pier, they got their key cards and located their room. Their luggage hadn't arrived yet but they did find a schedule, ship guide, and a map laid out and waiting for them.

"What room were my parents staying in again? We should let them know we're here."

"They said 312 on deck nine," Kaito replied. "Mine should be in 338."

They decided to go to Shinichi's parents' room first. The door opened when they knocked to reveal a tall woman with black hair and gray eyes who Shinichi had never seen before in his entire life. She was wearing a bathing suit and had a towel in one hand. It seemed she'd been about to head out.

"Oh," she said, obviously just as surprised to see them as they were to see her. "Can I help you?"

Shinichi backed away hurriedly, bowing and stammering as he went. "S—sorry, wrong room." With that he grabbed Kaito's arm and bolted down the hall.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Kaito said when they'd finally slowed to a stop. "But that didn't look like your mother."

"It wasn't."

"So unless your dad has something he should be telling us, then that wasn't your parents' room."

"Could you have remembered the wrong room number?" Shinichi asked a bit hopelessly. Kaito's memory was superb, but if that was the right room with the wrong people in it then…

"I think we may have been tricked."

"Let's look around," Shinichi declared, straightening and glancing around at the carpeted halls. "Maybe they gave us the wrong number on purpose. I wouldn't be surprised."

They spent the next few hours searching the ship from stem to stern, top to bottom. By the time they reconvened at their room, they had both reached the same conclusion.

"They're not on the ship."

Shinichi sighed. "…I know."

"So do you think they're trying to give us a break or get rid of us?"

"Probably both," he sighed. "What I don't understand is why they had to fly us to America to do it."

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say it's probably because they wanted to spend time in San Francisco for whatever reason and they still want us around for the rest of the trip. So this was the most convenient solution."

Shinichi flopped back onto the bed and threw an arm over his eyes. "You're probably right…"

"No need to sound so depressed." Kaito sat down beside him and started juggling four balls and three packs of cards. "Think about it this way. We're not paying. And we can't reasonably demand they sail back to San Francisco just so we can get off because we got ditched by our parents. So since we're stuck anyway, why not take advantage of the opportunity and have some fun? Just imagine, a whole two weeks without the peanut gallery."

Shinichi turned that over in his mind. The situation actually sounded pretty good when put that way.

There was a knock at the door and Kaito bounded off the bed to answer it. He came back moments later with two small suitcases. Shinichi sat up for a better look and frowned.

"That isn't my luggage."

"And I could've sworn this one was one of dad's." He checked the tags. "They've definitely got our names on them. Should we see what's inside?"

"Might as well get it over with."

The suitcases were unzipped and laid open for the magician's curious eyes as Shinichi lay back down.

"Hmm, it looks like your mom picked clothes for you. She even has these little tags telling you which set is for which day."

Shinichi groaned into his pillow.

"Don't worry, I think she was exercising some self restraint—or Mom was helping. Looks like they got me some clothes too."

Shinichi turned his face to the side to free his mouth. "Let me guess. Matching sets?"

"More matched than matching, but yes, it looks that way. Rather thoughtful of them really."

He snorted. "That's one way to put it."

"Come on, let's go get dinner. I'm starving and according to this note from your dad we have reservations."

"That was nice of him."

X

Shinichi had to admit that the little table for two by one of the ship's huge windows was nice. And it seemed they'd have the table every night. His parents may have a tendency to make plans without consulting him, but they tended to be thorough. He was pulled from his thoughts by a fwap as Kaito snapped his menu shut and dropped it on the table.

"What's wrong?" Shinichi asked. Kaito had only just opened the menu so he couldn't possibly have already picked what he wanted. Even the fastest readers needed _some_ time.

"It's all different kinds of fish," the magician complained, glaring at the menu like it had mortally offended him. Which he probably thought it had.

The waitress who'd been pouring their water let out a gasp of realization. "Oh, you're the one with the sea food allergies, right?"

Kaito blinked then smiled benignly at her. "Yeah. I don't suppose you have any alternate menus?"

"We do actually, just let me get one for you. It's not usually all sea food but the chef wanted to do an all ocean theme for the first night. Sorry about that."

"No problem," the magician assured her.

Shinichi gave him a look as the waitress bustled off for the alternate menu. "Sea food allergies?"

"Must've been mom's idea. Remind me to get her something when we get back."

They took a walk around the upper decks after dinner. The wind outside was cold, carrying with it the salty tang of the sea, and the waves stretched away in every direction as far as the eye could see. It was really quite amazing, Shinichi mused, and maybe a little frightening too to see just how small they were in comparison to this great, untamable realm of water.

X

Shinichi wasn't particularly surprised to wake up the next morning to find that Kaito had decided to migrate into his bed some time during the night. What did surprise him was the woozy feeling in his head. Neither he nor Kaito were prone to motion sickness, but some time during the night the wind and the waves had both become rough and with the ship traveling at fairly high speeds Shinichi found himself feeling nauseous and lightheaded. He groaned as the ship gave another heave. For a few seconds he felt like he was floating, then he was sinking into the mattress before the cycle repeated.

"You too huh?" came Kaito's slightly groggy voice. Apparently even he was feeling ill.

"I wish I could just knock myself unconscious," Shinichi grumbled back, burying his face in Kaito's shoulder as the ship heaved again.

The magician chuckled, suddenly feeling a lot better, and tightened his hold on his companion. "It should get better. I took a quick walk earlier and one of the crew members told me that even he was feeling it today. Apparently this isn't normal."

That didn't make it go away, Shinichi thought, but he didn't have the energy to voice the notion. So the rest of their second day was spent curled up together in their room but for one trip Kaito made to get them both something simple to eat. Not, granted, that either of them really felt like eating at the moment. Thankfully things calmed down on the sea sickness front after that.

X

"Rise and shine Shin-chan! We wasted a whole day yesterday. Don't want to sleep another one away."

Shinichi cracked open an eye to look at the clock before swiveling it to stare balefully at the magician. "Kaito, It's six thirty in the morning. And we're trapped on a ship with nowhere to go. How can we possibly waste time?"

"There's always something to do if you look hard enough," Kaito declared, grabbing a fresh set of clothes and beginning to change.

"Kaito! The curtain's open!"

The magician paused in what he was doing and glanced at the window, then at Shinichi, and back again. He applauded himself for not bursting into laughter, but he couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice—not that he really tried. "Shin-chan, there's nothing but ocean out there."

Operation Exploration lasted for the next several days. The ship, Shinichi decided, was a lot smaller once you'd been to all the accessible corners. It was frankly a little claustrophobic when you realized that you were basically trapped onboard. Thankfully there were plenty of places to go. There were also plenty of events arranged for the guests which Kaito had decided that they should take advantage of. Shinichi was just grateful he managed to escape karaoke night. Then again, it probably helped that Kaito knew he couldn't sing to save his life.

They were having deserts at one of the venues where people could dance when Kaito finally lost his self restraint and the entire room filled with colored smoke ranging all over the rainbow in shades. There was a moment of absolute chaos as everyone from the guests to the staff present tried to figure out what was going on (in other words, where the fire was). Then the smoke cleared and Kaito was standing in the middle of the dance floor under a spotlight (how he had rigged that in so little time, they would all wonder for the rest of the evening).

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he announced, spreading his arms wide in a gesture of welcome. "Why don't we light this place up a bit?"

Impromptu or not, Kaito's shows were always eye-catching and he had everyone in the room entranced in moments.

No one was dancing anymore as the magician had taken over the dance floor as his stage so the rest of the guests moved to find seats. Minor scuffles broke out as people tried to grab the best seats before others could do so first. One girl wandered over to Shinichi's table and paused behind the empty chair across fom him.

"Can I sit here?"

Shinichi nodded. "Go ahead."

"Thanks." She sat down and turned to watch Kaito producing several empty wine glasses from thin air which he then sent to drifting around the room (which probably meant he'd actually planned this ahead of time). As they bobbed along like little boats on some invisible river, they gradually began to fill with wine. Each glass came to a stop in front of a different audience member and stayed until it was taken. That made several people very happy. And as each glass left the parade a new one was added until everyone had one.

"Hey, why is yours the only one that's not wine?" Shinichi's tablemate asked, glancing over at his glass of cider.

"He knows I don't like alcoholic drinks," he replied absently.

"So you know him then?" she asked curiously.

"We grew up together," Shinichi explained.

She nodded and smiled. "Oh, I see. I guess you've seen all this before then huh?"

He snorted. "No. He's always coming up with new tricks or new ways to employ old ones. He says his goal is to never give the same show twice."

"That sounds pretty cool. It must be fun getting to watch all that."

"It is," Shinichi agreed, thinking back over some of the things he'd seen Kaito do over the years. A few of them really were amazing, though he could have done without the times the magician had decided it would be a grand idea to drag Shinichi into a part of his performance without asking. It usually resulted in some kind of embarrassing situation. "He gets carried away sometimes though."

The girl laughed. "I can imagine. I don't suppose he has a girlfriend?"

Shinichi blinked at the sudden change of topic then shook his head. "No, he doesn't," he replied honestly, thankful for the dim lighting in the room that was hiding the tint of color he knew had crept onto his face.

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "I would've thought someone like him would've found someone a long time ago. But I guess it might be hard for anyone to measure up. I mean, you don't find many people that out there. I suppose the rest of us must seem kind of dull." She heaved a heavy sigh and it seemed as though she was thinking about something else. "Good guys are so hard to find these days. Or maybe it's just a human thing. Sometimes I think we just always end up making things harder and more complicated for ourselves, you know?"

"I…guess you could say that," Shinichi answered a bit uncertainly. He wasn't used to having total strangers talk to him so familiarly.

"Yeah, I mean, people keep inventing things and stuff to make life easier for everyone but at the same time that means there's so much more that can go wrong and so much more everyone has to learn to keep it all working right. Not that some of the stuff isn't useful and good, but all that convenience gives people ideas and now there's so many more ways to trick people too. Sometimes it seems like things must have been easier way back when."

"Um, I don' mean to interrupt," Shinichi interjected hesitantly. "But are you all right?"

She blinked then laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was rambling wasn't I? Sorry."

"No, that's all right," he assured her. "It was interesting."

"That's nice of you to say. By the way, I never did get your name. I'm Katherine. It's nice to meet you."

"Shinichi Kudo," he replied, remembering to flip his first and last name.

"Kudo…" she mused. "Isn't there a writer with that name? Yuu-something, wasn't it?"

"Yuusaku," Shinichi supplied automatically.

"That's it," she agreed. "Do you know him then?"

Shinichi grimaced faintly. "He's my dad."

"Really? That must be interesting."

"Not as interesting as you might think."

She laughed at that. "You sure know a lot of cool people. A writer and a magician. Are you in the entertainment business too?"

"No," he said fervently. "I'm a detective."

"Wow, I've never met a real detective before. What's it like? You must meet a lot of interesting people."

"I…guess so," Shinichi replied, wondering if it counted that half of those people were dead. In his experience, a lot of interesting people led interesting lives which made them interesting enemies who got them killed. Probably not the best thing to mention in casual company…

Their conversation was interrupted as people all around them broke out into cheers. They both looked around to see Kaito bowing deeply to his audience, broad grin stamped across his face. As soon as he straightened people began to swarm around him, asking questions and exclaiming over his performance. Shinichi could tell he was basking in the attention. He'd always reveled in being as visible as possible. It was a tendency Shinichi had never really understood. Sure, he could sympathize with wanting to be recognized for something you were good at, but that wasn't really the same. Maybe he'd just spent way too much time being paraded around by his parents to enjoy getting stared at, but it did make him wonder.

X

"Well, that was fun," Kaito remarked as the door to their room swung shut behind them.

Shinichi made a distracted sound as he wandered over and lay down on his bed and rolled over on his side. Kaito watched him for a moment before moving to join him.

"What's the matter?" he asked, lying down and pulling Shinichi into his arms.

"…It's nothing."

He snorted. "Riiiight. Come on, you've been awfully quiet. Now talk."

"Really, it's nothing. It's just… Have you…"

"Yes?" he prompted when Shinichi trailed off and didn't continue.

The detective took another moment before letting out a quiet sigh. "I was just wondering… Have you ever, you know, thought about—about being with someone else?"

Kaito felt a cold chill race up his spine and he tightened his hold on his detective, pulling him closer. "Why are you asking me that?"

"I was just wondering…"

"About what exactly?" Kaito pressed. He didn't like this topic very much, but he wasn't about to let it drop either. Not before he figured out exactly what was going through his companion's head. "Aren't you happy?"

Shinichi blinked then frowned. "It's not that. I—I'm happy with things the way they are."

The magician relaxed, relieved but also rather mystified. "That's good to hear. For a moment there I thought you were going to say you wanted to leave me."

"What? Why would I want to do that?"

"That's what I was wondering. So then what exactly _were_ you thinking about?"

Shinichi mumbled something and the magician's eyebrows rose a fraction. "You know, if even my ears can't hear what you just said with you right here, you know you have to speak louder."

"I said I was just wondering if you…might be happier with someone different…"

"Different?" Kaito repeated, puzzled. "Different how?"

"Just—someone more…more outgoing, you know—more like you, I guess… More interesting…"

Kaito paused for a moment, imagining a Shinichi who was more like himself. It was…kind of horrifying and all sorts of wrong. Besides, he had the feeling he'd drive himself insane (really there were times when he marveled at the fact that he hadn't driven Shinichi crazy yet). There wasn't a stage big enough for two of him. It would be a nightmare! He liked planning shows (so he was a schemer, he'd admit it and be proud) and being the center of attention, but it wouldn't be any fun if he didn't have an audience. And while he wasn't choosy about audiences, it meant more when the person you could make smile was someone you cared about. All he really wanted, he mused, was for Shinichi to always be there. He didn't really need or want him to be different. He rather liked his detective just the way he was. Even if he could there wasn't anything about the other he would want to change. After all, he loved Shinichi precisely because he was himself. Besides, what could be more boring than someone who was exactly like you?

"Don't be ridiculous," he said finally, tucking Shinichi's head under his chin. "I love you. Take note of the 'you'. So why are you thinking about this?" he prodded, curious and maybe a little concerned.

"…I was just…talking to someone earlier… H—hey!" He shot Kaito a slightly miffed look as the magician bounded up off the bed and scooped him up out of his comfortable spot on the mattress. "What're you doing? We just got back!"

"I didn't say we were going out. Let's take a shower," the magician declared cheerfully, grinning when Shinichi instantly turned bright red (and by extension stopped thinking about whatever it was he'd been thinking about). "Obviously you've had way too much time on your hands if you're filling your head with such nonsense." He leaned down and kissed Shinichi before he could say any more. He was glad they'd sorted that out, because there was no way he was ever letting anyone else lay a hand on his Shin-chan.

X

There was a party on the ship the nigh before they were to arrive back in San Francisco.

Kaito had gotten several requests from assorted guests and even crew members for one last show and he was more than happy to oblige. So after dinner the two went down to the central court where the party was just getting into full swing. Shinichi found himself a seat near the fountain to watch with a glass of pineapple juice.

At some point in his show, Kaito walked right off the railings of one of the upper decks and onto what looked like thin air. For the first time that evening his entire audience fell silent in shock. Shinichi wondered when he'd found the time to set up the wires he was probably using. Kaito had been with him for almost every minute of the last several days. Maybe he'd decided to take a midnight stroll while Shinichi had been sleeping?

Distracted by his thoughts, Shinichi let out a cry of surprise as he felt his seat disappear right out from under him. Then he was standing on what he realized instantly was some of those invisible wires Kaito had strung up with the magician in question grinning mischievously at him. Caught off guard—and not accustomed to such precarious footing anyway—Shinichi pin-wheeled as he lost his balance and fell. People below them shouted out in warning—not, he reflected, that that helped much. But Kaito caught him before he could actually fall and the warning shouts turned to relieved ones mixed in with cheers.

"Kaito!" Shinichi exclaimed, half relieved and half angry. That had been far more frightening than he cared to admit. And of course now people were laughing—and were those camera flashes? He blushed and smacked the magician on the shoulder. "If we break out necks, it's going to be your fault."

"We won't if you'd just hold still," Kaito countered, laughing.

Shinichi opened his mouth but all that came out was another cry of surprise as Kaito spun around sharply on his heels. He grabbed a hold of the magician's jacket on impulse as the world vanished in a swirl of smoke and he felt the rush of air. When the smoke cleared he found that they were now on the ground—or at least Kaito was standing on the ground still carrying him. People began to applaud. Shinichi was mildly horrified later to find photos of the incident for sale in the photo gallery section of the ship. The two attendants working the station informed them cheerfully that they'd had to make a lot more copies of it than any other photo they'd ever taken. Apparently everyone had thought it quite the grand old show.

. . . . . . . . .

…"I still don't understand why you guys had to send us away though," Shinichi said, eyeing his parents. "What were you up to?"

"Well, parents need time alone too you know," Yukiko declared.

"So you shipped us off to sea without saying anything?"

"You had fun, didn't you?"

Shinichi groaned. "That's not the point! You could have just asked."

"But that wouldn't have been half as fun!"

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: This one was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be ^^ Anyhow, I did a picture the other day that felt like it'd be a good cover pic for this collection. If you're interested, you can see it here:

http:/alaena-h(dot)deviantart(dot)com/#/d468nz0

Just replace the "(dot)" with a ".".


	12. Untimely Arrivals

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Untimely Arrivals**_

Peels of laughter greeted the unveiling of the next photo. Shinichi himself had to stare. It was an image of Kaito pulling him off somewhere—or rather trying to pull him off somewhere—while Shinichi clung to the frame of the Kudo library door with his free hand like a drowning man clinging to a lifeline. Well, he had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that it _was_ kind of funny…

. . . . . . . . .

"Shin-chan! You have to do something about that guy!"

Shinichi looked up from the new book he'd just begun to read (the newest installment in a series of detective novels he'd been eagerly awaiting for ages) to blink in shock as Kaito came bursting into the Kudo library. At the magician's vehement declaration however he found himself taking a look around the room, but he and Kaito were the only people there. He turned back to the magician with a puzzled look.

"What are you talking about?"

"This guy from Osaka just showed up downtown," Kaito explained, indigo eyes narrowing in recollection. "Claims he's a detective. He's been going around saying he's better than you!"

"…So…what does that have to do with me, exactly?" Shinichi asked, nonplused. It wasn't really any of his business what kinds of people from what kinds of places went around saying what kinds of things. Unless they were planning some kind of crime anyway, in which case he'd care a lot, but this certainly wasn't the case. If bragging was a crime, most of the world would have to be arrested. And the first offender would probably be Kaito anyway so the magician really had no room to talk in the matter.

"Prove him wrong, of course," Kaito replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The detective awarded him a flat look. "You're kidding right?"

"Absolutely not," Kaito declared without hesitation. "You can't just sit around reading and let some total stranger look down on you!"

"Why should I care if a total stranger wants to brag?" Shinichi asked in what he thought was a perfectly reasonable way. His grip tightened reflexively on his book. Which he reeeeaaally wanted to get back to reading (frankly right now he didn't care if the sky was falling as long as he got to finish the book first). "It's not as though it affects me one way or another."

But Kaito obviously wasn't listening anymore. Bounding forward, he snatched Shinichi's new book out of his hands, dropped it on the nearest table, then commandeered one of said detective's arms and began to haul him bodily out of the library without a backward glance.

"H—hey! Wait! Kaito!" Shinichi protested, but his exclamations fell on deaf ears. The magician was entirely focused on hauling his best friend downtown to give this visiting upstart from Osaka a run for his money. In a last ditch attempt to keep from being dragged away to meet this new detective he couldn't care less about Shinichi grabbed the edge of the library doorframe with his free hand. For an instant he thought he might actually be able to hang on, but then his fingers slipped and he was being towed down the hall.

Heaving an internal sigh, he silently bid his new book a mournful farewell.

. . . . . . . . .

…"Ah, so that was the first time you two met Hattori-kun then," Yuusaku mused. "I wondered where you two were off to in such a hurry."

"Yep, and Shin-chan showed him not to go around making false claims about other people," Kaito said, sounding rather smug.

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Hattori just missed a few things because he was so focused on the idea of _winning_ what shouldn't have been a competition to begin with." What _he_ found weird was that someone had turned up dead right when they'd located Hattori. Now that had felt like a bit of a freaky coincidence.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: And that's when they met Heiji in this universe. ^^ Sorry this one's so short, but to be fair the last one was quote long.


	13. The Eyebrows

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: The Eyebrows**_

Upon first glance, it looked like nothing but a simple picture of a pair of elementary school age children doing a crafts project. It took Shinichi a moment to realize what was odd about it. "Kaito, where're your eyebrows?"

"What?" The magician gave him a bewildered look before he too took a look at the picture. "Hey, you're right. They're not there. That's weird. It looks like this one's from when I was ten? I'm pretty sure I had eyebrows when I was ten."

Ten… Shinichi thought back and suddenly brightened. "Oh yeah, it must have been the whole fire flower incident!"…

. . . . . . . . .

Sitting in the middle of a mass of assorted sheets of construction paper, Shinichi eyed his school project with a critical eye. They had been instructed to build a model of one of their favorite architectural structures. He didn't really have a favorite building, so he'd decided to just go ahead and make Tokyo Tower even if he knew it wasn't a particularly interesting choice. Now he was wishing he'd picked something a little less tall and skinny. The half made tower lilted wearily to one side as though its two hours of life were already too much for it to bear. He was starting to have serious doubts that it would survive until the due date. And if it did he wasn't sure it was going to be presentable.

Maybe he could reinforce it with some disposable chopsticks or something. They didn't have any at home though…

"Shinichi!"

Tearing his eyes away from the tower that was beginning to look more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa by the second, Shinichi caught sight of a blur that skidded to a stop beside him, sending scraps of paper in every direction. Several pieces fwapped against his tower. It was a rather depressing mark of just how weak a structure it was that the light buffeting sent it wobbling. He reached out hurriedly to steady it before glancing back around. The blur had resolved itself into his best friend who looked like he'd run all the way from wherever it was he'd been.

"Did you need something?" Shinichi asked as he finished righting the tower. It immediately started to wilt again but at least it stayed upright.

"I've got this great new trick," the aspiring magician exclaimed, eyes bright with excitement as he produced a rather large paper rose from somewhere. "Watch!"

He twirled the rose once then brushed his free hand over its vivid crown of crimson paper petals. Shinichi thought he heard a kind of _ssccchhh_ sound but he didn't have time to wonder what it had been because at that moment the flower burst into flames. The entire thing from crown to stem went up in a ball of orange and yellow light and searing heat. Kaito let out a cry of surprise—so apparently this wasn't supposed to happen—and both boys stumbled away from the flash of intense heat.

What remained of the rose fell in flaming pieces—right into the middle of the nest of construction paper that Shinichi had been using. In seconds fire was racing over the ground, rising higher and higher, faster and faster. Orange tongues licked up the wilting Tokyo Tower as other flames began to creep onto the wood of the porch where Shinichi had been working.

Both boys stood for a moment just staring in horror at the hungry flames with their mouths agape and eyes wide. Then they were both running. Shinichi grabbed the house coiled just off the porch steps as Kaito raced to turn the handle on the faucet to which it was attached. Then water was gushing out in an almighty spray, blasting everything on the porch like a small monsoon.

The flames gave a hiss of protest and died, the faint wisps of steam their last wave farewell. Shinichi continued to spray the porch for several moments longer before turning it off just to be safe. Once he was sure nothing was going to suddenly light up again, he dropped the head of the hose back onto the rest of its coils and surveyed the huge, black patch on the porch the fire had left behind. As for his construction project…he couldn't even see it anymore. It had been completely consumed by the flames along with most of the unused construction paper.

"I, uh, I'm really sorry…" an unusually small voice said from behind him with an even more unusual hint of guilt.

Shinichi sighed and shook his head. "It's all right… I was thinking about remaking it anyway. At least the fire didn't reach the house. The important thing is that no one got hurt, right?" He turned to confirm this only to frown when he noticed that his last assumption hadn't been entirely correct. White it was true that Kaito had gotten away from the fire quickly enough to avoid being really hurt, he'd still gotten minor burns on both his hands and face, the most obvious being on the tip of his nose.

"You should go run those under some cool water. I'll be right back," he said hurriedly before running back into the house. Both his parents were out, but he remembered that his father had used the cream for helping sun burns on his hands when he'd burned them after spilling hot coffee. Racing to the medicine cabinet, he took a moment to stare at the bottles arrayed there. It took him a second to locate the right one. Grabbing it, he followed the sounds of running water into the kitchen where Kaito had climbed onto the counter by the sink.

It wasn't until they had finished tending to the burns that Shinichi realized why he'd been getting this strange, niggling sensation that something was off with his friend ever since the incident.

"Um, Kai…"

"Yeah?"

"I think you kind of burned off your eyebrows."

Kaito blinked then turned to examine his own reflection in the polished front of the oven door. "…Well, I'm sure they'll grow back."

. . . . . . . . .

…They had spent the rest of that day rebuilding a much more sturdy miniature of the Tokyo Tower out of cardboard. It wasn't until much later that Shinichi thought to ask what the trick had been supposed to do. Apparently the flower had, in fact, been meant to catch fire, but it was supposed to emerge unharmed. It certainly hadn't been meant to go off like a fire bomb. The fact that it had probably meant whatever method Kaito had been using to light the fire along with the construction of the flower itself had been flawed, but the magician with his magician's secrecy had refused to explain anything, claiming he'd fix it and show it to Shinichi again when it worked better (which didn't happen until years later because neither Kuroba parent had been pleased to discover that their son had been—literally—playing with fire. It didn't help that the huge black burn mark on the porch had been impossible to hide).

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N: <strong>A couple years ago I did actually see a friend of mine lose a pair of eyebrows to a Bunsen burner. It was rather shocking since the whole thing went up in a plume and everyone was like what the...!**  
><strong>


	14. In the Dark

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: In the Dark**_

Two children slept in the next photograph, leaning against each other where they sat on the floor of what looked a bit like an empty closet except that Shinichi could see bits of bookshelves on the outer edges of the photo. It was almost like the shelves formed a wall in which an empty window had been cut to show the little room beyond.

"That's the secret room in your library," Kaito said, recognizing the parted, bookshelf doors hidden by the shadows in the room itself.

"You two gave us all a real scare that time," Chikage informed the two, shaking her head at the memory…

. . . . . . . . .

He'd _known_ it was a bad idea to climb around the library bookshelves especially when none of their parents were around. It was common sense. All sorts of accidents could happen with two little kids climbing up and down those really tall shelves after all. It didn't even take a very creative person to come up with a whole long list of them. But Kaito was supernaturally skilled at making things that were obviously bad ideas sound like good ideas. Shinichi just wished he'd remembered that sooner.

On the other hand, falling into a strange, empty compartment built into the wall behind one of the shelves had not been on the list of accidents he might have expected. Maybe if they were in the Kuroba house, it would have crossed his mind, but this was his own library here! He hadn't even known there _were_ any secret rooms in the house.

Not that this place qualified as a room. Secret broom closet was more like it even if it didn't have any brooms in it.

"There has to be a handle or switch somewhere," he protested to the darkness in general as he ran his hands over the walls and floor. All of them felt seamless. Behind him he could hear Kaito doing the same on the other side of the closet.

"Not if this place wasn't designed for people," Kaito replied, sounding far too cheerful for their current predicament. "If this is just supposed to be a secret storage space then someone else would have to let us out."

"It seems kind of tall to be just a storage space," Shinichi said doubtfully, looking up into the utter blackness overhead. He raised his hands and waved them around but felt nothing. "And it's empty."

"But not dusty."

"That's true… I guess that means someone has to have cleaned it recently." Sighing, Shinichi turned around—and realized with a shock of horror that he couldn't remember which wall was the one between them and the library. And he couldn't see a thing. "Uh…Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"Which wall's the door?"

There was a beat of silence. "I'm not sure."

For several moments after that neither of them spoke. Taking in a deep breath, Shinichi started knocking on the walls. They all sounded equally solid. Beside him, Kaito shifted from wall to wall, pressing his ear against each and listening hard. Still nothing.

Shinichi could feel his heart rate rising as he knocked harder on the walls, hoping one of them would move or just do _something_. It felt like everything was closing in on them. Could air even flow between this horrible place and the outside? If it couldn't…then how long would it be before they ran out of oxygen? He squeezed his eyes shut—not that it made a difference—and ordered himself not to panic. There was no dust in here, so someone must have cleaned it recently. So that meant there was a good chance that that person would find them. But…what if whoever it was didn't really clean it all that often and they just happened to have fallen in after a rare cleaning session?

He started abruptly when he realized that Kaito was saying something. He hadn't heard a word of it. "What?"

"I said maybe we should try calling for help."

The two of them spent the next however-long-it-was yelling at the top of their lungs. Shinichi had no idea how long they were at it but his throat was sore by the time they finally gave up on the idea. If their air supply was indeed limited then they had just used a lot of it, he thought with a sinking feeling in his stomach. He sat down and wrapped his arms around his knees. Beside him he could feel Kaito making another round along the walls before joining him with a sigh.

"I guess we have to wait," the aspiring magician grumbled, leaning back against the wall behind him. Waiting had never been his strong point.

Shinichi made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat before both of them fell silent. The seconds dragged and the darkness seemed to grow thicker.

"Kaito?" Shinichi asked finally, his own voice sounding oddly small and flat in that still, stifling darkness.

"What is it?"

"What if…what if no one finds us?"

Kaito swallowed. He'd been trying not to think about that. They were only eight. There were still so many things he wanted to do! He still had to become a great magician and travel the world! And Shinichi still had to become a detective like he was always saying he wanted. They couldn't be stuck here—they just _couldn't_.

"I'm sure they'll find us. I mean, your dad writes mysteries for a living, and my dad's the world's best magician. If anyone can find us, it has to be them," he reasoned aloud, drawing on all the acting lessons his father had ever given him to inject as much confidence into his voice as he could. After all, they had to believe it.

"I…guess you're right," Shinichi agreed, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he firmly squashed the niggling fear that wanted to latch on to the 'if'. Getting disheartened now wouldn't do either of them any good. Not, granted, that being hopeful did much good either, but at least it made waiting easier.

There was the rustle of movement and an arm slid around his shoulders. Shinichi leaned into the embrace, grateful for the contact. At least they weren't here alone.

X

Yuusaku looked up from the newspaper he'd been reading when his wife breezed into the living room.

"Have you seen Shin-chan?" she asked, glancing around the room in case her son was hiding somewhere in the nearby corners. "I just bought the cutest new jacket I wanted him to try but I can't seem to find him anywhere!" As she talked she shifted a few steps to the side so she could look behind the sofa. Nope, no Shinichi.

"Have you checked the library?" her husband inquired, going back to reading.

"Of course!" she huffed in indignation. That was the first place she'd gone since she knew as well as he did that it was Shin-chan's favorite room. "Did he go out?"

"No. I'm pretty sure he and Kaito are both upstairs."

"But I already told you, I've looked in every room."

"Perhaps they hid when they heard you coming," he suggested, earning himself a frown. He raised his hands defensively. "I'm sure they'll come out eventually. Probably when they get hungry."

But lunch came and went with still no sign of either boy. When dinner time also passed they knew something had to be wrong. Yukiko called the Kurobas while her husband began a meticulous search of the house. Soon he was joined by all three of his fellow parents. There were no signs that the boys might have snuck out of the house but they were clearly not in any of the rooms either. Toichi had been sent up to check the roof but they weren't there either. The only mark that they had been in the house earlier was a scattering of books near a few of the shelves in the library. And that, Yuusaku noted, was odd. Shinichi wasn't the kind of child who would leave books lying around on the floor where they could be stepped on. He loved books too much for that.

"It looks like they were using this place as a jungle gym," Toichi noted, gesturing to the way several of the displaced books had fallen from shelves far too high for the boys to have reached from the ground.

Yuusaku looked over the shelves again before it struck him. That was the shelf where… Striding quickly to said shelf, he reached into the space that had been left by some of the fallen books. There was a click and suddenly the shelf's three middle rows parted in their center and swung inward to reveal a dark, closet-like space.

And there, sitting on the floor inside, were the two missing boys, both fast asleep.

. . . . . . . . .

…The room had originally been designed by Yuusaku as a place where he could hide from unwanted visitors (like impatient editors). As it was the mechanism to open it from the inside had been placed far too high up on the wall for a child to reach. It also wasn't particularly easy to find in the dark unless you knew exactly where it was.

"I always said building that room was a stupid idea," Yukiko declared, shooting her husband a pointed look. "But would you listen? _No_. It's _cool_, he says, and _useful_…"

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Hmm, not much humor in this one, though I guess it wasn't meant to be anyway. For some reason I like writing them as kids now and then. Anyhow, see you next time!


	15. Bookworms

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

**Timeline Note**: This one's memory is set prior to the events from the first photo.

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Bookworms**_

"Ah ha! I _knew_ I saw you there!" Kaito exclaimed, leveling a triumphant finger at his father. "And you said you were grocery shopping!"

"Ah, but I brought the groceries home, didn't I?"

"And like I said last time, that doesn't mean you couldn't have been there." Kaito settled back into his seat looking smug.

Toichi just laughed. "And I never claimed that I didn't pass by."

"Pass by?" the younger magician scoffed in disbelief. "You call spending ten minutes making balloon animals passing by?"

"Well, you can't expect me to just walk away when you had such a frightening look on your face," his father pointed out cheerfully. "What kind of parent would I be then?"

Kaito rolled his eyes as he glanced back at the picture. He'd been openly displaying his irritation because he'd wanted _someone_ to notice that he was Annoyed. Not that it had worked. Shinichi had been too preoccupied with his little bookworm detectives' convention of two…

. . . . . . . . .

Shinichi was staying at the Kurobas' for the week because his parents were going out of town for a conference. It meant he had to get up earlier than he would have liked to get to school in time, but he had to admit it was better than staying home alone like he'd originally thought he'd be doing. Besides, Chikage-san was a wonderful cook. Currently he and Kaito were doing their homework in the latter's room. Or at least that was what they were supposed to be doing. He didn't know what kind of homework Kaito thought he was doing while he made five little silver bells do a jig across a string of handkerchiefs.

"You know," Kaito said suddenly, drawing Shinichi's attention away from the math problems he'd been solving. "I think detective-ness is some kind of disease."

"Gee, thanks," Shinichi said dryly, feeling somewhat offended despite himself.

"I don't mean it's bad or anything," the magician said hastily, shooting him an apologetic smile. "It's just it seems to be contagious. My class just got a new student and guess what he said he was?"

"A detective."

"Bingo! So that makes three of you now. You're popping up like daisies!"

"…" He really didn't know what to say to that. On the one hand, he supposed it _was_ a little unusual how many high school detectives were suddenly cropping up these days, on the other hand Kaito's description made detectives sound like weeds. Which was…kind of very unflattering. Although he was fairly sure Kaito didn't mean it that way. "Is there a point to this?"

Kaito shrugged, making all the silver bells disappear with a twist of the handkerchiefs which all turned black. "Not really. I just thought it was interesting is all."

"So who is he?" Shinichi asked when the magician didn't elaborate.

"Hm?"

Shinichi frowned at the distracted noise. He knew before he looked around that the magician had sunk into his own little world again as he watched Shinichi from his seat across the room. He seemed to be doing a lot of daydreaming lately. He didn't know what was preoccupying the magician's thoughts—and he was fairly sure he was better off not knowing—except that Kaito always wound up staring at him and it was starting to get creepy.

"Who's the detective in your class?" he asked again, louder this time.

Indigo eyes blinked before focusing on his face again. "Oh, him." He shrugged, waving one hand dismissively. "I think his name was Hakuba something. Blonde. Kind of boring."

"Hakuba Saguru?"

"Yeah, that's it. Have you heard of him then?"

"A little. His father's also with the police. I believe he's solved several cases in London and a few other places in Europe."

Kaito shrugged. He wasn't particularly interested in anything to do with the new detective (after all, he was just a detective, and one that didn't have any particularly outstanding or unusual qualities at that). But he supposed he should have expected Shinichi to be. He wondered idly if it was because this new detective had spent time in London. Shinichi always had wanted to go (ever since he first picked up a Sherlock Holmes book for that matter, which was a long time ago). And he could hear in the way the other had pronounced the city's name just now that the desire to see the place hadn't grown any weaker over the years.

They went back to their homework after that. Or rather Shinichi did and Kaito went back to practicing random magic tricks while he watched Shinichi tapping his lower lip with his pen as he thought.

"Hey Shin-chan."

He was answered by a distracted, "Hm?"

"Why don't you just move in with me? We'd save a lot on commute time."

"…Do your homework Kai."

It was the last day of Shinichi's stay when Kaito spotted a familiar head of blond hair at one of the picnic tables in the park he and Shin-chan were passing through.

"That's the detective I told you about," he said, nudging Shinichi and pointing the guy out. Shinichi followed the gesture to see the blonde reading newspapers at the picnic tables.

"You mean Hakuba-san?"

"Yep."

"Should we go say hello?"

Kaito considered it for a moment. Well, it couldn't hurt. He could tell Shinichi was curious, and he supposed it was only polite to say hello when you passed someone you knew on the streets.

"Sure, why not."

There weren't all that many people at the picnic benches as this particular park didn't have much in the way of food and it was getting close to lunch time.

"Hey, Hakuba!" Kaito called out as he and Shinichi approached the benches.

The blonde glanced up at the sound of his name.

"Kuroba-san," he replied politely, glancing from Kaito to Shinichi and back again. "Is this your brother?"

"No," both teens replied automatically. It was a question they had been asked so often that Shinichi thought he could probably answer it in his sleep. The natural next step of course was to introduce himself.

Apparently Hakuba had also heard of Beika's Kudo Shinichi.

Kaito had expected Shinichi to ask about England. He'd figured they could talk to the blonde a little and let Shinichi ask his fill of questions. Besides, it was always fun to learn more about the quirks of other places and peoples. He'd also expected the mention of Shinichi's favorite fictional detective. After all, it was the basis of Shinichi's interest in said foreign country. What he hadn't anticipated was the reaction he got.

Hakuba, it turned out, was just as much of a Sherlock Holmes fan as Shinichi was. The two of them had been discussing the said detective's novels for the last _three hours_. Kaito was sure he was going to go mad soon. Shin-chan hadn't so much as looked his way since the conversation had taken its turn into the world of all things Holmes. Even worse, it didn't sound like they were going to be done talking any time soon.

Frankly what he really wanted to do right now was strangle Hakuba, but Shin-chan would be upset.

He supposed he could leave but damnit this was supposed to be _their_ day out before Shin-chan had to go back home tomorrow! It was already two in the afternoon and they hadn't even eaten lunch yet. Thankfully they'd had a late breakfast, but he was definitely starting to get hungry and it was not helping his mood.

Come to think of it, were they talking in _English_ now?

And was that _his dad_ making balloon animals for the children over there?

He sat up straighter and squinted at the balloon seller. The features weren't quite right, and the hair was all wrong, but those were little things. That gleam in the eye however was all too familiar. But when the man glanced across the park at him again there was nothing but bland disinterest in his face. Had he imagined…? No, he couldn't have.

Ugh, whatever, it wasn't important. What _was_ important was how to get out of here with Shinichi in tow. Drastic measures were in order (though not too drastic, because Shin-chan was watching).

There was an explosion of smoke and a muffled cry of surprise from Hakuba. Shinichi waved the smoke away only to see that his fellow detective had had his mouth duct-taped shut. The tape had been wrapped all the way around his head to make it even more of a pain to remove. The blonde himself was picking at the tape looking equal parts shocked and bewildered. He was, after all, new to the area and unaware of the natural hazards of the Ekoda district.

Shinichi on the other hand was all too familiar with said hazards (they often followed him home) and knew exactly what was happening. It didn't stop him from being startled when he was yanked up out of his seat and dragged bodily backwards off the bench.

"H—hey, Kaito!" he exclaimed, scrambling to get his feet back under him as the magician continued to walk away from the picnic tables with Shinichi firmly under one arm. "We can't just leave him like that."

"Yes we can," Kaito replied without so much as a backward glance. "It's just tape." Extra sticky, but he kept that to himself. "We're going to get something to eat," he declared instead, his grip not loosening in the slightest, though he did adjust his hold so that Shinichi could straighten up and walk more properly.

Detecting the steely note in his companion's voice, Shinichi frowned and stopped trying to pry himself loose. "What's gotten into you?"

That earned him a look he couldn't quite put a name to. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Shinichi glanced automatically at his watch and blinked in surprise. "It's two already?"

"Exactly!" Now Kaito's expression morphed into the rather more familiar one that Shinichi usually thought of as a waterless type of crocodile tears. "And we haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."

Shinichi sighed and made a mental note to apologize to Hakuba next time he saw him (since he knew Kaito wouldn't) before nudging Kaito in the direction of an Italian restaurant he knew opened throughout the afternoon. "If you were hungry you should have just said so."

Kaito made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat and changed the subject.

. . . . . . . . .

…"Introducing you to Hakuba was the worst mistake of my life," the magician grumbled, scowling.

"Kai…" Shinichi sighed. There were, he reflected, some down sides to having good memories. It was probably a good thing they were looking at these before the others got here.

**TBC**

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><p><strong>A.N: <strong>Hmm, I wanted at least fifty of these. It looks like it's going to be a lot harder than I thought. Again, feel free to make suggestions if anything comse to mind. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed and see you next time!**  
><strong>


	16. Handkerchief

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Handkerchief**_

"I've been meaning to ask you two about this one," Toichi said when they turned to the next page. "I never thought a son of mine would treat a gift with so little respect in front of its giver."

Kaito glanced at the picture in question and turned to cough into his hand. "Yeah, well…"…

"Shin-chan! You have to help me!"

Shinichi staggered as a weight landed on his back, nearly knocking him off his feet. He would have fallen if it wasn't for the arms that caught him around the middle and steadied him. Once he'd gotten his balance back, he dislodged said arms and turned around so he could look his assailant in the face.

"What is it?" he asked, noting how Kaito looked a little frazzled. Still, he knew from experience that you should always wait for the whole story before deciding how to react to the magician's pleas for aid. Otherwise you might find yourself doing something either really stupid or really embarrassing or both.

"There's this girl in my class. Her name's Koizumi Akako and she's trying to put a spell on me!" Kaito explained, waving his arms around for emphasis and earning them strange looks from the passersby on the street around them.

"That's ridiculous Kaito," Shinichi pointed out in what he thought was a very reasonable tone. "There's no such thing as a spell."

"You say that because you haven't seen what she's done to half my school! They're like zombies! They're always following her around and asking what she wants and trying to give her things."

Shinichi rolled his eyes, wondering if this was Kaito's idea of a fun new make believe game. "It sounds to me like they're just trying to impress her."

"But it's not _like_ that," Kaito insisted. "It's too extreme to be normal! I wasn't kidding when I said it was half the school. The male half to be exact. They're all being controlled I tell you!"

To Shinichi, it still sounded like Kaito had decided for some reason or other only he would ever understand to freak out about this girl being extremely popular. "So what does this have to do with me exactly? Or you for that matter?"

Kaito gave him a look that said the answer should be obvious. "She's after me! She wants to turn me into one of her zombie servants!"

"…You're kidding, right?" Because surely Kaito knew no amount of good acting on his part was going to make something like _that_ sound believable.

"I'm serious! She's been giving me the evil eye all week."

"Did you do anything to make her mad?" Shinichi asked. They had only been in high school for a few weeks but he knew Kaito could do a lot in that time that might annoy someone.

"Of course not." The magician produced a wounded look. "Why would you even ask me that?"

"You were the one who just said she's been glaring at you all week," Shinichi pointed out.

"Not that kind of evil eye. It's more like a…well, a 'I am going to make you another one of my zombie slaves' kind of evil eye. And just the other day she took one of the handkerchiefs I used when I was—helping everyone de-stress after our Japanese test."

"If you insist on playing pranks in school, you can't expect not to lose a few props."

Kaito rolled his eyes. "I know that. I give away souvenirs all the time."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Don't you know _anything_?" the magician demanded. "Witches can use things that belonged to a person to bewitch them. Everyone knows that."

"I thought that was supposed to be more like hair and that kind of thing. You know, biological."

"Usually," Kaito conceded reluctantly, "but she must have taken it for a reason."

"And so based on that somewhat baseless assumption, you want to…?"

"Get it back—and it isn't baseless!"

Shinichi just shook his head slowly. "Why do you need me then? Just ask her to give it back. Or did you want me to ask for you?"

"That's too risky," Kaito declared. "By that point she could have done anything with it. We have to get it back before that without her knowledge. We just need to find out her address."

Realization dawned and Shinichi scowled. "You want us to break into her house? For a _handkerchief_? Have you lost your mind? Why are you so determined to believe this Koizumi girl is a witch and coming after you anyway? I'm sure there are better ways to amuse yourself if you're really that bored."

"Because she _is_! Why won't you believe me?" Now Kaito was actually shaking him back and forth by the shoulders as though he could physically shake the doubt out of Shinichi's head. The detective fought to pull himself out of the frenzied shaking with only mild success. He was rescued however by a smooth, female voice which spoke up from somewhere to his right.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Kaito froze then turned his head slowly towards the source of the interruption. Taking a moment to steady himself, Shinichi followed his gaze to see a tall, slender girl with dark red hair regarding them with interest. Her poise was that of someone who knew everyone was watching her. But while she was indeed beautiful, Shinichi couldn't help but feel like there was something about her that made him want to keep his distance.

"Ah, Koizumi-san," Kaito said after a moment's pause, letting go of Shinichi and straightening out his clothes. It was only because he knew the magician so well that Shinichi could tell he was nervous. "I didn't realize you frequented Beika."

"I do not," the girl replied with a graceful flick of her hand to dismiss the issue as irrelevant. "I have something for you." She reached into her purse and pulled out a blue handkerchief. "You forgot this," she said coolly, holding it out. The corners of her mouth were quirked slightly upward as though she was laughing at some joke only she understood.

Looking at that expression on her face, Shinichi had to admit Kaito might have a point, the girl really was creepy. But he still didn't believe in zombies. Or witches for that matter.

Kaito hesitated a moment, eyeing the handkerchief warily as though it might bite him, before reaching out a reluctant hand and taking it gingerly from her grasp.

There was a pause before Shinichi discretely poked the magician in the side. Kaito started out of his suspicious contemplation of the handkerchief.

"Did you come all this way just to return this?" he asked in a tone that sounded like mere curiosity but which to Shinichi carried a certain undertone of horror.

The redhead nodded, her smile widening the barest of fractions.

"Well…thank you then, but you really didn't need to go to all the trouble."

"It wasn't any trouble. I will see you in class then." That said, the girl turned and walked away, her crimson hair flowing about her in just the right way to emphasize the motion. The two teens watched her go in silence.

"So what are you going to do with that?" Shinichi asked when the girl had disappeared from sight, glancing at the handkerchief Kaito was still holding like a dirty rag. Or maybe a dead animal.

"Burn it," the magician said immediately.

…"To be fair, it was mine to begin with, so you can't really call it a gift. She was just…giving it back."

Their parents continued to look at him expectantly but Kaito just stared back with a smile that said absolutely nothing. Shinichi watched the staring contest for a moment before settling down to wait it out.

**TBC [To be Continued]  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>A.N:<strong> ^^ Kind of silly, but since Halloween's coming up and all... Anyhow, I'm not sure when the next one will be up since I'm going to be gone for a while after this week, but I'll see you guys when I get back. Hope you enjoyed!

Oh, and Nightpounce, one of your ideas was something I actually already started writing, it's like you read my mind!


	17. Early Creations

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Early Creations**_

Kaito and Shinichi both spent a long moment examining the next photo in equal confusion. It was a rather blurry image, taken of what looked vaguely like two children and an adult falling onto a sandy beach as something blindingly bright flew past them. The combination of the nighttime backdrop, the splotch of too-bright light, and motion rendered the thing almost indecipherable. And was that someone's thumb in the corner?

"Oh," Kaito said finally as realization dawned, "that was from the first time I made fireworks! Do you remember, Shin-chan?"

"It's kind of hard to forget," Shinichi replied a wry smile making its way onto his face…

. . . . . . . . .

"Are you sure about this?" Shinichi asked a bit nervously, eyeing his best friend as the other boy started to empty his backpack out onto the sand. It was New Year's Eve and their parents had decided to have dinner at this beautiful new seaside restaurant (luckily, they were open). The two of them had snuck away from the rest of their family members after dinner and found a deserted stretch of sandy beach because Kaito had said he had a surprise. Shinichi didn't think it was a good idea for two elementary school aged children to be running around the unfamiliar area without their parents this late at night, but nevertheless, here they were. And he was pretty sure those were homemade fireworks Kaito was piling by their feet.

"Come on, I know I did them right. I read all of Tou-san's books and everything. Now come help me light them. I wanna set the big one off first."

Shinichi crouched down beside the young magician and gaped at the thing now being rolled around on the sand as Kaito searched for the spot where the fuse was attached. This one firework was as big as all the other ones combined. It kind of made Shinichi think of a very colorful bomb. "Um, Kai, are you sure this is safe?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, it just…looks dangerous…?"

Kaito laughed. "You worry too much. Here goes!"

"Wait!" Shinichi dove for the pile of smaller fireworks and scooped them quickly back into the discarded backpack. Then he carried the whole pack some distance up the beach. Setting them down at what he decided was a safe distance, he ran back to where Kaito was waiting impatiently. "Okay."

Grinning, Kaito produced a lighter he'd snitched from his father's supplies and lit the firework. Then the two boys ran to where the backpack sat to watch.

The fuse fizzed and hissed as it shrank, pulling the flame closer and closer to the firework itself before the firelight disappeared altogether. The boys stuffed their fingers into their ears and watched in anticipation.

One second passed, then two, then ten, but still nothing happened.

"Aw, it didn't work," Kaito complained as he dropped his hands from his ears and started to trudge back towards the firework. "I'm sure I did it right. Maybe I should have used their ratios after all…" In a fit of irritation, he kicked the firework lightly with his foot. It toppled over and lay like a dead animal in the sand.

Making a face, Kaito turned away from it. "Let's try the others. I tested some of the ones just like them earlier so I know _they_'ll work."

Noticing the way his friend's enthusiasm had greatly diminished after the failure to set off the first firework, Shinichi fished a couple of the smaller ones out of the backpack and held them out with an encouraging smile. "We don't need that one anyway. I'm sure these will be great."

Kaito cheered up immediately and bounded over, brandishing the lighter. "You're right. Hand 'em over. Oh, good choice, this one's really cool!"

They had just finished setting up the smaller fireworks when Shinichi heard something hiss. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah." Kaito glanced around, puzzled. "What—"

He was cut off as, with a splutter and a crack, the dead firework they hadn't cleaned up yet blasted itself across the sandy beach right at them. He dropped the lighter, grabbed Shinichi's hand, and took off. With the waves lapping at their left and a ridge of rocks to their right, all they could do was run forward as the firework chased them down the beach.

"Look out!" Shinichi exclaimed as a cluster of human figures loomed up out of the night ahead of them.

The figures, who turned out to be their parents, scattered like bowling pins. Toichi snagged the boys by the backs of their jackets and hauled them out of the way as well just in time for them all to watch the rogue firework ricochet off a boulder and go barreling out across the rolling waves.

"I see you two have been having fun," the older magician remarked, glancing down at the boys with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong," Kaito said a bit sheepishly.

"That's good. Always learn from your mistakes," Toichi agreed, ruffling the boy's hair. Then he bent down and lowered his voice to a whisper so only Kaito and Shinichi could hear as a conspiratorial light ignited in his eyes. "Don't worry, I have more than enough in the car for the both of you to practice all night."

. . . . . . . . .

…And he hadn't been kidding. Once they had gone back to fetch the neglected lighter and the rest of Kaito's fireworks, Toichi had vanished and reappeared with what looked like a whole shop's New Year's stock of fireworks in tow. But they had still tried the rest of Kaito's first, and even though they weren't quite as impressive as Toichi's, they had still been Shinichi's favorite for the proud grin they placed on his best friend's face.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: I wanted to get at least one more of these up before the end of the year, so here it is. For some reason all the other ones I'm working on for this are currently stuck. Ah well… I wish you all a happy New Year!


	18. Gift

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Gift**_

"Ooh, I remember that one, it was really good. Make me another one Shin-chan~?"…

. . . . . . . . .

Kaito's birthday was just around the corner, literally, and Shinichi still had no idea what he was supposed to get the magician. Neither of them really had anything they _needed_ that they didn't already have. Their families were both well off and their parents fairly willing to let them buy whatever they wanted since they knew neither boy would abuse the privilege.

He had asked his mom for advice first, which he sorely regretted. He still couldn't stop blushing every time the conversation surfaced in his mind (What kind of mother gave advice like that to her _teenage_ son who'd barely just started dating?). He was currently in the process of scrubbing it from his memory. He was never going to ask her for her advice about this kind of thing again.

He would have asked his dad next if the man hadn't been sitting in the room during his first attempt to solicit aid. As far as he knew the man was still lying paralyzed with silent laughter on the living room couch. Traitor.

So he had wound up here, wandering along the streets of the shopping district and browsing through the shops. Of course, since he had no idea what he was looking for or even where to begin, what he was really doing was wandering aimlessly past various brightly lit display windows. It wasn't, he reflected, that there wasn't plenty of stuff available. It was just that a gift was supposed to mean something. It shouldn't be something you grabbed just because you could.

Coming to a stop in front of a bakery, he gazed at the many cakes on display. There were fruit cakes and cream pies and, for whatever reason, an ice cream sundae on display. Each piece was a carefully crafted piece of artwork. For as far back as he could remember both his and Kaito's birthday cakes had been made by Chikage-san. The cakes were generally small, just enough for each of the eight of them to have a slice, because Chikage had learned a long time ago that giving her husband and her son a lot of sugar just before bedtime was not a good idea. Kaito sometimes complained about the fact that he didn't get seconds even when it was _his_ cake (so sometimes Shinichi gave him his slice since he didn't much like sweets himself).

His thoughts came to a stop and circled around that recollection. Then he spun quickly on his heels and set off towards the train station.

One train ride and a short run later he was in front of the Kuroba house. He had called ahead to check who was home and been told that Toichi and Kaito had left for some kind of magicians get-together. With that important fact established, he shared his idea with Chikage-san who laughed.

"Of course I'll help!"

She opened the door before he could ring the doorbell and invited him inside. He left his shoes by the door and followed her into the kitchen where he saw that she had already laid out an assortment of materials.

"So what kind of cake were you thinking about?" she inquired as she pulled several large bowls out of the cupboards and set them on what space remained on the counters.

"Chocolate," Shinichi replied without having to think.

Kaito had decided to throw a party that year, mostly because he liked to throw parties. They were great places for him to ply his arts on a captive audience (not that his audience ever complained). But, like they did every year, the Kurobas and Kudos had their own private celebration afterward over a sumptuous dinner. It was once the last dish had been cleared and before they were to move to the living room to look at gifts that Chikage cleared her throat and pulled a large, covered tray out of the fridge. Winking at Shinichi, she carried it to the table.

"Shinichi made the cake this year," she announced as she lifted the cover off the plate and set it in the middle of the table.

Kaito had inherited his father's sweet tooth and both Kurobas were eyeing the newly revealed treat with great interest. It was a large, chocolate cake twice the size of most normal cakes shaped like a magician's top hat with a white chocolate band serving as the ribbon. Perched to one side of it on the hat's brim was a dove-shaped cake painted in white icing.

"Your mom made the dove," Shinichi added a bit self-consciously. "And she helped a lot with the rest of it."

The delighted grin on Kaito's face made all the trouble of trying and failing to get the thing to both look right and taste good worth it.

"Let's take a picture before we cut it!"

"You have to light the candles first," Yukiko reminded him, producing a pack of candles with a smile. "I found these really pretty candles the other day just for the occasion!"

"Who cares about candles?" the magician retorted, bouncing in his seat, but Yukiko was already sticking them into the cake in a neatly spaced ring around the top of the hat. Once she was done, Toichi snapped his fingers and all eighteen candles burst into life simultaneously.

The song was sung and Kaito paused for a moment before blowing out the candles—or trying to blow them out, as the case may be. Everyone had just started the traditional clapping after the candle flames died when they suddenly leapt back into life. Puzzled, Kaito blew them out again, only to have them roar once more into vibrant, dancing existence like they were taunting him.

He glared. "Why you little—"

"Let me see those." Yuusaku snatched the candle pack and flipped it over, reading the back as Kaito made another failed attempt to extinguish the candles. "Yukiko, these are emergency candles. They're designed to be long lasting."

Hurriedly, they all set about carefully removing the candles before they could damage the cake. Toichi produced a stone bowl out of somewhere and the candles were placed, still burning, inside.

Kaito observed the lot of sticks with a bemused expression. "Didn't I say we should skip the candles?"

. . . . . . . . .

…Kaito still hadn't been allowed to have seconds that night, but he'd gotten all the seconds he'd wanted the day after that (though Chikage suspected he'd helped himself to more a bit earlier than that since she would swear the cake was smaller the following morning than it had been when she'd put it away after the celebration).

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N:<strong> Just a little something since I'll be gone next week. ^_^**  
><strong>


	19. Fear

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Fear**_

"Why did you guys keep a picture of this?" Kaito demanded, frowning at the hospital room. He didn't have to look at it to remember exactly what it looked like. Beside him, Shinichi shifted a bit uncomfortably.

"Just because it's not pleasant, doesn't mean it's not important," Yuusaku replied, reaching up to adjust his glasses…

. . . . . . . . .

It was the worst day of his life. It had started out normal enough. He'd gone to school and afterward he'd met up with Aoko so that they could work on a school project. They'd almost finished when his cell phone had rung. He had run all the way to the hospital. The details of the call and the journey were blurred. He couldn't remember talking to the front desk at all, though he assumed he had.

What he did remember was that little white room and the equally white sheets. He remembered the pallor of the face on the pillow even though he would rather not. And he remembered how limp Shinichi's hand had been in his as he sat beside that too white bed.

His parents had been there. So had Shinichi's. He thought he might have noticed the doctors and nurses drifting in and out as well, but none of them mattered. The only time he dragged his gaze away from Shinichi's closed eyes was when the doctor came to tell them that the detective would be all right.

That was around when he started breathing again.

He spent the following days drifting through his classes in a worried haze, doing his work on autopilot and scaring his classmates and teachers half to death with his abnormal lack of activity. He'd woken up in a cold sweat that first night from a nightmare where Shinichi never woke up. He'd climbed out his window and run all the way to the hospital where he'd snuck into Shinichi's room to make sure it was just a bad dream. It hadn't been that hard to sneak in and he'd wondered briefly if he should send the hospital an anonymous tip on how to improve their security. But the thought was fleeting as he had other things on his mind.

Shinichi had been just as they had left him earlier, of course. But he couldn't get that stupid dream out of his head. It was odd, he thought, because it wasn't until that moment that it really struck him exactly what Shinichi was spending his time doing. Every time he got involved in a case, he was dealing with people who had killed before and might not have any second thoughts of doing so again. Of course he'd known this before, but he hadn't really _known_. It was a chilling realization. So he'd sat by the bed and watched the smaller boy sleep, thinking how he wished the sheets weren't white. The following morning he'd woken to the nurse's startled cry at discovering him in the room.

He'd gotten a light scolding for that after which his father had advised that next time he should not get caught. Then it was his father's turn to get the scolding. That had been entertaining to watch, but he wasn't really in the mood to appreciate it.

When Shinichi woke up, Kaito had, rather coincidentally, been working on the same project he'd been working on when he'd gotten the first call. Aoko had looked at the expression on his face then sighed.

"Go," she'd told him. "But we _are_ working on this tomorrow during lunch."

He really did love those beautiful blue eyes and the way they lit up when they saw him. He couldn't imagine losing them—or maybe he could and that was the problem. It hadn't been serious this time, but next time—and it was all too likely that there would be a next time—it might be different.

The thoughts were still whirling through his head, but he only got to say hello before Shinichi's parents arrived, Yukiko looking like she was on the verge of tears. So he excused himself to go get something to drink and give the Kudos a moment alone with their son. When he got back it was to the sound of shouting. He slipped silently inside, keeping by the wall.

"You got shot!" Yukiko had cried out, voice rising to almost hysterical levels. "You could have been killed! This kind of job is too dangerous for someone your age to be doing! That's why we have police! From now on you are going to stay home and do normal things like everyone else your age!"

"But Mom—"

"No! I don't want to hear it!" With that, Yukiko burst into tears and ran out of the room, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

It was Yuusaku who finally broke the silence. "I'll go talk to her." He paused by the door, glancing back at his son with a frown etched between his brows, then he shook his head and stepped outside without a word.

"She can't be serious…" Shinichi slumped back into his pillows with a frown of his own. "I mean, it's just one accident… I've been doing this for almost three years without anything happening."

Kaito slid back into his chair. "I hope you're not implying that it's okay to get shot once every three years or so."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm not. I'm just saying it's not like it happens every day."

"Which makes it so much better, obviously," the magician replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Shinichi paused and turned to study Kaito's face, feeling somewhere between uncertain and wary. The magician was smiling, but it wasn't reaching his eyes. Unlike most people, Kaito didn't frown when he was _really_ upset. Instead he had a tendency to smile in a way that made everyone else wish he was frowning because that would probably be less creepy. Shinichi didn't find himself on the receiving end of that expression very often and it was making his insides squirm uncomfortably.

"Um, Kai…?"

The magician didn't answer immediately. He hadn't intended his first conversation with Shinichi to be an angry one, and angry words were generally not very good ones anyway. Besides, it wasn't Shinichi he was upset with, not really. Finally he sighed, shaking his head.

"You gave us all a scare you know."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen either."

"Well, just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I…I can't promise never to get hurt, Kai," he said honestly, a quiet sigh fluttering from his lips. "Accidents happen… But I promise I'll be more careful."

The corners of the magician's mouth twisted into a slightly bitter smile that made Shinichi's stomach twist. "I guess I can't really ask for more than that, huh?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for doing something you think is worthwhile," Kaito said sharply before his eyes softened. "It's who you are. Although don't think that excuses you from having to be careful."

"I won't," Shinichi assured him, sounding more than a touch relieved.

"Good." Kaito leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Shinichi's lips before picking up one of the detective's hands from where it had been fiddling with the sheets and clasping it between both of his, warming it. "So do you know what you're going to say to your mom when she comes back?"

Shinichi sighed. "I'm not sure yet. I'll have to see what kind of mood she's in when she gets back first."

The next person to walk through the door however was Chikage with a basket over her arm. "Good evening boys. It's good to see you up Shinichi. Are you two hungry yet? I brought dinner. Toichi will be here once he's done talking to Yuusaku and Yukiko."

The teens traded looks but Shinichi subtly shook his head. He wasn't going to ask what they were talking about. Whatever his parents' resolution was, he would find out for himself when they were ready, and figure out how to go about things from there.

So they had dinner. A few minutes later they were joined by the rest of the parents. Yukiko seemed to be back to her usual, bubbly self and no one brought up the screaming match from earlier. Kaito could tell however that it was stil on all the Kudos minds, so he didn't complain when his parents gestured that he should leave with them. Visiting hours were almost over and Shinichi and his parents needed to talk.

"I'll be back tomorrow to escort you home," he promised before bidding the elder Kudos goodbye and slipping out of the room.

. . . . . . . . .

…Later, Shinichi told Kaito that he had wound up giving his parents much the same promise he'd given the magician. His mother still wasn't really happy, but she'd relented since she knew this was what Shinichi wanted to do. She wanted her little boy to be safe, but even more than that she wanted him to be happy. So in the end the person who'd been the least bothered by the fact that he'd been shot was Shinichi himself. He was, however, sorry that he'd worried everyone else. Although he'd grown rapidly less sorry every time Kaito used the event as an excuse to drag him into one of the magician's crazy schemes. The fact that he would probably have been dragged into said schemes anyway was only mildly mollifying.

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: I know Shinichi's parents from the series are actually rather blasé about everything, but I've always felt they were a bit too much so—kind of like they really think everything's a game. This world's not as drama-ridden though and since they're actually around I think they should react more strongly.


	20. Luck

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Luck**_

Two eleven-year-olds were seated amidst a spread of poker cards and dice mixed in with sheets upon sheets of paper…

. . . . . . . . .

It didn't make sense.

It wasn't _possible_. But he'd calculated and calculated, double checked and everything! But every time he tested it…

He shook his head and glared at Kaito who was gathering the cards around them back into a neat stack and beginning to shuffle. The aspiring magician saw the look and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Shinichi's frown only deepened. "You have to be cheating or something!"

Indigo eyes blinked before taking on a wounded look. "Why ever would you say that?"

"Because it's impossible for you to win _every_ single game just like that if you weren't," the smaller boy declared, waving a sheet of calculations at his companion like they were some kind of holy object with the power to ward off the evils of illogical occurrences. "These games are all based on chance. The probability that one person could win sixty three—"

"Sixty seven," Kaito corrected with a cheery grin.

"—sixty seven games in a row is so small it might as well be zero!"

"But it's not zero then, so obviously it's possible."

Shinichi huffed and turned back to his notepad, beginning a new set of calculations.

. . . . . . . . .

…"You were at it for a whole month," Kaito recalled, snickering. "And then you got all upset saying it didn't make sense. It was cute."

"Well, it _didn't_ make sense," Shinichi retorted. "In fact, it _still_ doesn't. It's not natural to be that lucky."

"Ah, but like you said yourself, the possibility _does_ exist. Even the numbers agree on that."

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Just a little something fun. ^_^ I would've put this up yesterday but my internet was acting weird.


	21. Tutoring

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Tutoring**_

"It was always so cute seeing you two studying together," Yukiko said, giggling.

Studying wasn't really what Shinichi would have called it, but he supposed that was probably what it looked like. And it was the general idea. Still, trying to study would have been a much more accurate description—and only on his part, mind you, especially if this particular photo had been taken when he thought it had…

. . . . . . . . .

When Yukiko brought up the idea, Shinichi thought it was some kind of joke.

"Mom, you know as well as I do that Kaito doesn't need tutoring," he pointed out. Kaito always scored exactly what he planned to score on his tests. It just so happened that he had decided that scoring poorly in his classes as the year was ending would get him placed in a different class next year from the Koizumi girl he still insisted was after him.

"Then maybe he's not feeling well," his mother suggested. "Unmotivated, maybe?"

Motivated, more like, Shinichi thought. Just motivated in the wrong direction.

"So Chikage was thinking maybe you could talk to him about it."

And that was why he was now seated in the Kuroba living room with Kaito and the magician's textbooks and notes spread out all around them. Granted, most of those notes consisted mainly of diagrams and scribbled ideas for magic tricks and gadgets with only short blurbs here and there on something actually related to whatever class the magician had been in at the time.

"Kai, you can't purposefully mess up your grades just because you feel like it. You still have college to think about," he pointed out for the fifth time since his arrival.

"I just have to do really well next year," Kaito reasoned.

Shinichi resisted the urge to smack his forehead. In the mean time, Kaito scooted closer to him and slid an arm around his waist.

"You're worrying your mother," he reminded the magician. "The least you can do is show her that you're studying. She thinks you might be feeling ill."

"I never spend that much time studying though. Logically speaking then, she would be more likely to think something was wrong if I suddenly started studying a lot."

"…But that was before your grades slipped," Shinichi argued. "Someone whose grades suddenly drop should be doing something about it. If you keep this up you're going to fall behind for real. I _know_ you wouldn't like that." After all, Kaito took a lot of pleasure from knowing more than other people.

Kaito mulled this over. "I suppose… Will you stay with me if I do?" he added hopefully.

Shinichi sighed. "That _is_ why I'm here. Though I honestly don't know what good they think me being here will do when we all know you're scoring badly because you want to," he added under his breath. Picking up a history textbook, he opened it to the chapter Kaito's sparse notations seemed to be implying was the one he was supposed to be reading. "So have you actually read any of this yet?"

The magician waved a disinterested hand. "Some of it."

"Then you can at least read the rest of it. Even you can't work out history you've never heard or read about."

Kaito made a vague noise of ascent though to be honest he wasn't really interested. But if it made Shinichi feel better he supposed it wouldn't hurt. Besides, they could cuddle while they read.

Shinichi arranged the textbook on his lap so that Kaito could read it easily from where he was leaning over the detective's shoulder.

The magician had never had much regard for the idea called personal space. But ever since they had officially become a couple, Kaito couldn't seem to keep his hands to himself. It had been creepy and embarrassing until Shinichi had gotten used to it. Now he didn't really mind as long as they were alone (the problem therein lying in the fact that Kaito didn't care if they could be seen or not, but that was just the way Kaito was).

"Are you actually reading or not?" Shinichi demanded in exasperation, snagging the hand that had been creeping behind him and depositing it on his knee instead.

"I am," the magician assured him. Shinichi had his doubts about that but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being and move on.

The hand, however, wouldn't stay put. An hour of thwarting its attempts to migrate later Shinichi snapped.

"Stop that!" He scooted away from the magician and batted his hands away (_again_) before leveling him with a pointed glare. "I'm trying to help you here and you're not even trying! Or maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Obviously I'm distracting you by being here. In that case I guess I should be staying away."

Kaito gaped at him. "What? But Shin-chan…"

"No. I've decided." Shinichi folded his arms stubbornly. "This vendetta of yours is ridiculous. If you're going to keep pursuing it, I'm not having anything to do with it. You're not spending time you should be spending studying trying to sneak your hands where they don't belong."

"I beg your pardon. I do no such thing," Kaito huffed, drawing himself up. "I always put my hands _exactly_ where they're supposed to be!"

That earned the magician a smack on the head with the textbook by a mortified Shinichi who proceeded to drop said book on the couch cushions and stand up. "I'm leaving."

He just knew this was going to be a total waste of time. Gathering up his things, he stomped towards the door. He'd done everything he could. If Kaito insisted on being an idiot, there was only so much the rest of them could do until he realized how stupid that was.

He let out a quiet sigh, suddenly feeling a bit depressed. Hopefully Kaito would come to his senses and get over his irrational fear of Akako before exam time. It was true the girl was kind of creepy, but it had been two years and she'd never done anything that warranted Kaito's dislike for her in Shinichi's opinion. As far as Shinichi could tell, the girl just wanted to be friends. She just didn't know how to go about it since everyone else just gravitated to her with no effort at all on her part.

Well, either way, Kaito's grades were more important than whatever delusions he was entertaining himself with in regards to the poor girl. Even if that meant Shinichi couldn't see him for a while.

He paused by the door and turned back to smile at the flabbergasted magician still sitting with the open textbooks. "How about this? If you get full scores on everything come exam time, we can celebrate however you like."

And he was gone.

Kaito sat frozen on the couch, staring at the empty space where his detective had disappeared until his mother wandered in out of the kitchen.

"Did Shinichi leave already?" she asked in surprise, looking around the room. "I was hoping he would help me with the pies…"

Her son let out a groan and flopped sideways onto the open textbook Shinichi had left behind.

A moment later indigo eyes narrowed. Okay, he could admit that purposefully lowering his grades probably wasn't the smartest idea he'd ever come up with. On the other hand, he might be able to use this to his advantage. Shin-chan had, after all, basically promised him whatever he wanted if he did well (although the detective probably didn't realize just how open ended his statement had been).

Slowly Kaito's expression morphed into a wide smirk. It was time to make some new plans.

As for Akako… Well, he was sure he could come up with something different for dealing with her by the time the next school year rolled around.

. . . . . . . . .

…Kaito's grades had picked up rather quickly after that.

**TBC**


	22. Dreams

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Dreams**_

"I assume this is the page about the strange things we did while we were asleep?" Shinichi guessed, eyeing the next spread of photos.

"Some of them anyway," his mother agreed.

The first of the pictures featured a teenage Kaito. In it the blankets had lost the battle to gravity and lay in a fluffy mound on the floor. The magician himself was practically falling over the edge of his bed while he waved an arm as though fighting some imaginary monster…

. . . . . . . . .

He'd been having a nice dream about being at the beach. Which was a little odd because he didn't much like the beach. But Shin-chan had been there, smiling up at him from where he was sprawled rather invitingly on their towels. Then he noticed that there was an open cooler sitting in the sand beside the towels. A look inside revealed boxes of chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream bars, miniature chocolate cream pies, and even bottles of chocolate syrup in case there wasn't enough chocolate in everything else. In short, all the chocolate you could possibly want on a warm beach.

So there he was with all the ingredients for what promised to be a very enjoyable afternoon and all sorts of interesting ideas flittering through his head.

And then the giant sea monster rose out of the waves and grabbed Shin-chan and took him away.

Horrified, he ran back into town where he learned that the sea monster lived in a palace under the waves just off the shore. Every now and then the monster came and kidnapped people.

"Why?" Kaito asked, naturally confused and more than a little concerned.

It turned out the monster captured humans to act as its servants. Those who were taken were never seen again.

This was not what Kaito had wanted to hear.

He was not giving _his_ Shin-chan to a sea monster!

Asking around, he found an old man who said he could tell him how to find the monster's palace. The old man also gave him a giant seashell which glowed when he took it and turned into a scimitar. It looked very sharp.

A blur of colors later he braced himself and walked into the sea from the rabbit shaped rock that the old man had shown him. The water was murky but he could see the glow of the castle on the sea floor as he drew closer and closer to it.

It didn't cross his mind to wonder why he could breathe under water.

Eventually the castle came into sight, composed almost entirely of coral and pearly stones. It was too beautiful for the home of a monster, but maybe it had stolen that too. With his shell scimitar in hand, he marched into the castle.

He fought scaly, monster guards and was given directions by a pair of helpful servant girls who told him that they too had been stolen from their homes. He wondered idly if Shin-chan would be wearing one of those peculiar but elegant servants' robes too. But now wasn't the time to be distracted.

So he defeated the monster and rescued his Shin-chan and didn't go on to rule over the former sea monster's underwater realm. What they did do was stay the night. The people freed by the monster's defeat put on a celebration feast and then danced and partied through the glowing coral gardens.

. . . . . . . . .

…Over all, it had still been a good dream, Kaito mused. An adventure, a party (all in his honor), and a nicely cuddly Shinichi all in one.

He couldn't place the next two pictures though. One of the pictures showed Shinichi brandishing a pillow at him (which he couldn't put a time to because it happened rather often). As for the other one… Shinichi was lying on the ground in it, wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets with his eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "Were you having a bad dream?"

"Uh…it was just a weird dream…" Shinichi hedged.

He was inclined to blame that one all on the new illusion Kaito had pulled earlier that day where, for a full ten minutes, he'd actually managed to convince everyone at his show that day that there were two of him…

. . . . . . . . .

"Shin-chan~! It's time to get up! If you sleep any longer you're going to sleep the whole weekend away!"

Groaning, Shinichi rolled over and burrowed deeper into the fluffy sanctuary of his blankets even though he knew it was a futile effort. He wasn't at all surprised when hands began to pry him from his comfortable little nest of blankets. He clung onto them for a moment longer before relenting and sitting up to give the intruder a disgruntled look.

That was when he did a double take. Because instead of the grinning magician he was expecting there was…well, the magician was still there, but either he was seeing double or the teen had learned to duplicate himself.

He stared. They grinned.

With another groan, he flopped back onto the bed. "Kai, what did you _do_?"

"What do you mean?" the magicians asked, sounding like some strange echo. There was a pause then a single voice exclaimed, "What're you answering for? He was talking to me."

"No he wasn't," another voice that sounded exactly the same retorted.

Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose. Maybe he was going insane.

In the end he'd dragged the two to see Toichi-san in hopes of an explanation. The older magician had looked at his twinned sons with only mild surprise.

"I told you this would happen if you used the blue feather for the spell," he'd told the younger magician (magicians?). "It'll probably take about a day to wear off."

This hadn't made much sense to Shinichi, but the Kaitos seemed to get it. They shrugged in unison.

"I suppose it can't be helped," the one on Shinichi's left said.

The one on his right nodded amiably before grabbing Shinichi's hand and heading for the door. "Come on Shin-chan, let's get something to eat."

"Hey, I was going to do that!" the first Kaito complained, bounding after them.

It was the most annoying meal Shinichi had ever eaten. The café only had booths—standard ones built for four to sit two by two across from each other. The food here was good, but it was difficult to enjoy it when every ten minutes or so he had to get up and switch seats. Why did he have to do this? Because the Kaito on the other side of the table generally took about that long to start complaining that the seating arrangement was unfair. He could see the confusion on their waitress's face as each time she returned he seemed to be sitting somewhere different. Except since both Kaitos ordered the same thing and ate at the same speed, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination. Shinichi could sympathize all too well. He was getting confused himself.

"So which one of you is real?" he asked finally.

"I am," they both said at the same time. Then they glared across the table at each other. Shinichi dropped his head into his hands. He really should have expected that.

It only went downhill from there.

"Whoever has the bigger audience by the end of the show is the better magician," one Kaito declared half an hour later as they stood in the plaza outside of the restaurant they had just left.

The other smirked, radiating smug confidence. "Agreed."

The contest to find out who was the better magician ended only when Shinichi got fed up with the whole thing and threatened never to speak to them—him?—ever again. They relented, both claiming to have won.

They had gone to the amusement park after that. It was, after all, what they had originally planned to do that day. It didn't take long for Shinichi to start wishing he'd just gone home. First was the ridiculous cotton candy eating contest which Shinichi only put a stop to by pointing out that there were a lot of children at the park they would be depriving of the fluffy sweets should they really get into it. They argued every time they reached a ride that didn't have more than two seats in a row which eventually led to them having to settle for the rides that had three or more (so Shinichi could sit in the middle). And of course they had competed at every single booth in the carnival game sector of the park.

And now… Well, now they wanted to know who he thought was the better kisser. That was when he'd decided it was time to run away.

He loved Kaito very much and he had nothing against being kissed by the magician (quite the opposite, as long as they didn't have other things they were supposed to be doing), but he drew the line at being dragged into this inane competition against himself that Kaito seemed to have begun.

Now…how to get home without getting caught? Or, no, if he went home, he'd surely be found. Where could he go that Kaito wouldn't think to look? Toichi-san had said whatever spell this was would wear off in a day. So he just had to stay hidden for the rest of the day. Where to go, where to go… Bookstore? Pleasant, but too obvious. Library? Same problem. Grocery store? He really didn't want to spend that much time in the grocery store. Fish market? Effective, maybe, but too smelly for an extended stay. Aquarium? Too far away. He'd never make it there without being spotted. Peering around the corner of the building he was currently hiding behind, he scanned the skyline. That was when he spotted the glitter of a glass roof he recognized. That was the new botanical garden that had just opened! It was full of plants and thin, winding trails it was all too easy to get lost in. Perfect! Now he just had to get there without being seen. If he backtracked a little, there was a side street he knew would lead him straight to the place.

Drawing away from the corner, he turned—and came face to face with Kaito.

"There you are!" the magician said cheerfully. "I've been looking all over for you."

"K—Kaito." Shinichi backpedaled hurriedly only to crash into something warm and solid. Strong arms wrapped around him from behind, aborting his attempt at flight.

"Now, now," an all too familiar voice murmured in his ear. "It's not polite to run away from your date~."

That was when he'd woken up—to find that he wasn't alone in his room.

He stared at the magician currently half in and half out of his bedroom window for a moment before picking up the pillow that had fallen on the ground beside him (why was he on the ground?), and smacking the intruder upside the head with it before he could dodge. Kaito let out a confused and rather muffled yelp as he suddenly found himself the subject of a vigorously flailing pillow barrage.

. . . . . . . . .

…Kaito was still watching him expectantly. Shinichi coughed and hurriedly turned the page. "Let's just move on."

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Er, I was in a weird mood when I wrote this one… ^^U


	23. Stage Fright

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><span><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Stage Fright**_

Shinichi's eyes zeroed in immediately on the violin. It was being cradled in the arms of his photographed self, the bow clutched in the other hand. He remembered that instrument well, though it looked so much smaller now. It hadn't been a particularly good violin, but neither had it been one of those awful machine-manufactured ones. Even so, the sight of it brought a faint smile to his face. It had suffered through his first clumsy attempts at playing with him and seen him improve. It definitely deserved some recognition for the fact that he could play well now.

"That one's from your first concert," his mother explained.

Ah, that would explain the little red things clinging to his clothes and hair in the picture…

. . . . . . . . .

"Shin-chan, what are you doing still standing out here? The concert's about to start! Aren't you supposed to play first?"

The seven-year-old boy ducked his head, avoiding his best friend's inquisitive gaze. "I, uh, forgot something on the car. Yeah, um, I'm just gonna go get it and…"

The young magician raised an eyebrow as the other continued to ramble out what sounded to him like a rather shoddy lie. Shinichi never had been good at coming up with cover stories on the fly, especially not when he was caught by surprise. Kaito also couldn't help but notice that the other boy was edging towards the concert hall doors.

"You're not trying to run away, are you?" he asked curiously. "I mean, this is your first concert. It would be a shame not to make good use of it."

"I am not running away!" Shinichi exclaimed in indignation before his shoulders slumped. "I'm just—I mean…"

"You're nervous."

A red flush began to creep across Shinichi's face. "I didn't say that…"

"You didn't have to. It's kind of hard to miss," the other boy replied lightly. Pre-performance jitters weren't something he'd ever experienced himself (he'd been performing magic tricks for just about anyone who'd stay still long enough to watch for about as far back as he could remember), but he'd heard from his father that it was fairly common, especially among people who had to step onto a stage for the first time. And this wasn't just Shinichi's first violin concert—it was his first time on a stage, period. Add that to the fact that Shinichi had actually only started his violin lessons about a month and a half ago, and it wasn't hard to figure out why Kaito had caught him loitering in the lobby with his eyes on the doors to the outside world.

Shinichi had told his parents he wanted to learn how to play the violin because his fictional idol did. He'd been rather excited when they had agreed and signed him up for classes. He hadn't, however, bargained on having to actually play in front of an audience. But his violin teacher—like most music teachers—held regular concerts for her students. This particular teacher organized three concerts a year and expected all her students to perform, barring extenuating circumstances. That included students who'd only barely started playing.

Shinichi had come to him in a panic about a week ago when he'd first found out that he would be expected to play in the conert.

"_I only know one song!"_ he'd exclaimed, pacing around the aspiring magician's room.

"_That's all you need,"_ the other had reasoned. _"She's not asking you to play more than one, is she?"_

_"Well, no,"_ the smaller boy admitted. _"But it's a really simple song. No one plays songs that easy in concerts! It'll sound stupid compared to everyone else…"_ The last part came out in a mumble that Kaito had to strain to make out. Understanding dawned. So that was the problem. Shinichi was embarrassed that the only song he knew—and therefore the one he would have to play—was so simple. Even the next newest student had been playing for two years.

_"Everyone has to start at the beginning though, right?"_ he said finally. _"I'm sure they've all been where you are before. It would be pretty stupid of them to judge someone on that. And you're going first, so they won't have anyone to compare you too."_

Shinichi had taken a moment to really think this over before eventually agreeing that it was probably true. He hadn't said any more about it after that, and Kaito had thought the issue was over with. Then again, maybe stage fright wasn't quite the same thing.

"You know, Tou-san told me that one way some people get over their nerves is that they imagine that everyone in the audience is only wearing underwear."

Shinichi looked horrified and slightly green in the face. "How is _that_ supposed to help?!"

"Actually, I'm not entirely sure. I guess it's funny?"

The look Shinichi gave him at that clearly said that he thought it sounded about as funny as a funeral.

"He also said some people pretend everyone in the audience is a watermelon," Kaito offered.

Shinichi's brows furrowed. "Why would watermelons be at a concert?"

"Don't they say plants grow better when you play classical music for them to listen to."

"But if they were in the audience, then that would mean they'd already been harvested, so they aren't going to be growing anymore anyway."

The magician hesitated then waved a hand in dismissal. "Who cares? It's not supposed to make sense, Shin-chan. It's just a mental exercise to help make the nervousness go away. I don't think it matters if they're watermelons or pumpkins or rocks or whatever. It's just those things aren't people and probably don't care what you sound like when you play your violin. That means you don't have to worry about what they'll think and just play the way you know you can."

"I suppose so. You could have just said so."

"I thought I already did. I'm sure I said it was a technique for getting rid of stage fright."

Shinichi scratched his cheek, blushing faintly. "Oh, right. Um, I guess I just wasn't thinking."

Kaito laughed. Noting that his friend didn't look nervous anymore, he grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the concert hall's inner doors beyond which the plush seats and stage waited.

"H—hey!" Shinichi protested, but he didn't do anything to try and get away. He was led all the way to the front row where the rest of the students who would be performing were already seated. The two who were scheduled to play after him were engaged in the process of checking over their instruments, and it suddenly struck him that he might not be the only one who was a little anxious. That realization went a long way in dispelling the last remnants of his unease. By the time his violin teacher called his name, he felt almost calm.

And it really wasn't as bad as he'd feared. He was feeling a blessed mix of happy that he hadn't made any mistakes and relieved that it was over by the time he took his bow.

Of course, then it had to start raining rose petals.

Murmurs of surprise and wonder drifted through the hall and Shinichi all but ran back to his seat at the end of the first row.

. . . . . . . . .

…"I still don't understand why you did that with the petals," he complained, turning to give Kaito a chagrined look. Admittedly, he'd forgotten all about what other people might or might not have thought about his performance after that. He was too busy being embarrassed at the curious and amused looks he'd been getting as he spent the rest of the concert picking rose petals off of his clothes.

The magician chuckled. "It just seemed so _normal_ to give the performer flowers. I mean, practically all the students' families did. I saw them. I wanted to do something different, so I rigged up the petals before I went to find out why you hadn't come in from the lobby yet. Dad helped," he added a bit reluctantly when Toichi cleared his throat. "But it was my idea."

**TBC**

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>: Wow it's been a long time since I updated this! I just suddenly wanted to write something on when they were younger again. I hope you enjoyed and have a great week! ^_^


	24. Fleeting Moments

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><span><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Fleeting Moments**_

"Now this one was definitely all my idea," Kaito declared, still a little annoyed at having had to share credit on the last one.

Shinichi examined the photo for a moment, calculating angles, then frowned at their parents. "I didn't know you guys were there too."

Toichi chuckled. "Kaito isn't the only one who thinks such things shouldn't be missed."

"But then why didn't you guys say anything? You could've at least lent me a jacket or something."

"We didn't want to interrupt."

The detective rolled his eyes, but he might admit privately that he was glad about that, even if it had been cold. He looked down at the picture again.

A ten year old Kaito sat with his arm around something that looked at first glance like a fluffy cocoon. There was a familiar tuft of black hair peeking from the top of what turned out in actuality to be a cocoon of blankets. The two children were rather small in the photo where they sat near the bottom of the frame. Above them, the night sky stretched dark and glittering with starlight…

. . . . . . . . .

"Kai…it's two in the morning…" Shinichi knew he was whining, but he was too sleepy to care about dignity at the moment. All he wanted was to go back to his nice, warm bed and the dream he'd been having about meeting Sherlock Holmes.

"I know. That's why we have to hurry!" his friend explained, not making any sense at all. Even as he spoke, he dragged Shinichi, blanket and all, the rest of the way to the window—at which point he pushed the smaller boy out of it.

If he'd been more awake, Shinichi might have screamed (like any normal person would when being pushed out a window). As it was, all he managed was a confused 'eep' before he landed in something that bounced and swayed violently under his minimal weight. With his arms and legs tangled in the blanket he'd refused to let go of, he could only stare around blearily in the darkness of the night. It felt like a hammock? A moment later the whole thing rocked again as Kaito landed beside him. There was a horrible, fleeting moment when he thought he was going to go tumbling over the edge, but Kaito grabbed the edge of the window sill by his head and steadied them. Then he was tugging on something and they began to rise.

When Kaito had rigged a pulley system outside his bedroom, Shinichi had no idea. But he was definitely dismantling it first thing tomorrow morning. Although he supposed it might be gone by then already since Kaito had obviously set it up for this occasion. The magician was pretty good about hiding his tracks lest his tricks be unraveled too easily.

"Where are you taking me?" he grumbled.

"Not far. Just up to the roof."

"But we're not allowed up there anymore, remember?" he pointed out, fighting back a yawn.

Kaito only laughed. "No one has to know."

The hammock came to a stop and Shinichi found himself being herded onto the roof whether he wanted to go or not.

"Okay, we've got two minutes left," the magician announced after checking his watch.

"Two minutes left for what?"

"You'll have to wait and see."

"…I should've known." Still a little grumpy about the whole situation, Shinichi wrapped himself firmly in the blanket he still had a hold of until he resembled a sulky cocoon. Only his head was visible amidst the fluffy barricade.

"Don't fall asleep," Kaito warned.

"How can I? It's too cold up here."

"Here." Scooting over so that he was right next to his blanket-encased friend, Kaito put an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders. "Better?"

The blankets under his arm shifted in what felt like a shrug. Kaito only grinned and ran a fond hand through the other's soft hair. Slowly, the shoulders under the blankets relaxed from their upset hunch.

As if on cue, the entire sky came to life. Millions of lights blossomed from the darkness, streaming across the sky like the world's largest swarm of fireflies. They didn't streak so much as they drifted majestically in a soundless dance through the fathomless reaches of the heavens.

It was like magic, he thought, leaning against Kaito's side as they continued to stare up at the ethereal display. It was breathtaking and humbling all at once. Looking at that myriad of moving lights, he found himself really thinking about how vast a place the universe really was. Vast and full of wonder.

The meteor shower ended far too quickly, leaving behind it nothing but a dazzling memory and a night sky that seemed just a little too empty in its absence. The two boys continued to sit there in silence, their eyes trained on that vast, velvet blackness.

After a while, the memory of those brilliant, shooting stars faded enough to let the more normal stars shimmer back into their awareness.

It was only then that Kaito turned to his friend with a broad, self-satisfied grin. "So? Aren't you glad I didn't let you sleep through that?"

Shinichi looked down, blushing a little. "Yeah… Thank you."

. . . . . . . . .

…Shinichi smiled faintly, tracing a finger over the motionless lights in the photographed sky. It was a shame that the photo couldn't really capture the real majesty of that moment, but he knew that that was one night he would never forget.

Although he could have done without the cold he'd caught afterward.

**TBC**


	25. Tricks and Treats

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><span><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Tricks and Treats**_

He supposed he should have known that they would eventually see some Halloween pictures. At least this one was better than the cat suit from the year after. Hopefully, that wouldn't show up later in the album.

What Shinichi remembered best about this particular Halloween, however, hadn't been the costumes or the party at the Kurobas that had lasted long into the night (and during which this photo had been taken). No, it was the _incident_. Many of the officers he worked with in Division One still referred back to it on occasion, some in jest and others in irritation, yet he still didn't know how to respond when they did. It was just awkward all around…

. . . . . . . . .

Halloween was always an eventful time around the Kuroba household. Both Toichi and his son saw the time as a grand opportunity to cut loose and have fun. For those who lived with and around them however, it was a nerve-wracking time during which it was a wise survival tactic to develop the habit of checking around corners and looking over your shoulder.

If he were ever to rank his favorite holidays, Shinichi would have to place Halloween near the very bottom of his list. He didn't like candy, so the fact that you could get large amounts of it for free was unattractive. He also didn't like dressing up. He had enough of that when his mother went on shopping sprees, he didn't need more of it when the options suddenly started to include furry animal ears and other ridiculous and embarrassing things. Unfortunately, the fact that he didn't like dressing up never seemed to help.

Take this year, for instance.

He had gone to Kaito's place after school let out in order to help prepare for the party the Kurobas were throwing that year. The party was scheduled to take place after the traditional, evening trick-or-treat period. Kaito and Toichi being who they were, the decorations for the house had gotten more and more complex until they'd realized at the last minute that there was no more time left. They had to drop a few projects, and the outside of the house was almost entirely untouched. Kaito had been somewhat annoyed by this deficiency, but he had balked at Shinichi's suggestion that they just put a pumpkin by the door. No decorations, he'd claimed, were better than halfhearted decorations.

So, with the house properly adorned but for a few last minute adjustments being dealt with by the magicians, all that was left was the food which, naturally, had to be done late in the interest of freshness. Shinichi had offered to help Chikage with the preparation since he was good at following instructions and not adding things into her recipes that didn't belong just to see how it would turn out. They had to hurry since both elder Kurobas were to attend a different party in the evening before returning to start their own. Shinichi's own parents were out of town this week and therefore couldn't help like they usually did.

He didn't see Kaito upon arriving at the house, but the bangs and spates of random laughter echoing through the halls of the house (which now resembled the dark lord's castle) suggested that Kaito and his father were attempting to cram as many of their ideas into place as time would allow. With them safely occupied, the food preparation would go a lot more smoothly. The kitchen was already permeated with the aroma of fresh cooking when he arrived. Soon, the table began to fill up with plates of pasta, bowls of salad, platters of roasted meat, trays of cookies, pies, and more.

"Thank you so much, Shinichi," the woman said as she placed the last tray of muffins on the table. "I couldn't have finished all this without you."

"I'm glad I could help."

They returned to the living room turned throne room to find that both father and son magicians had finally finished their scheming. They were running a last survey of their work with identical, satisfied grins that made Shinichi wonder if he would have to spend the party later rescuing guests from booby-traps. Both Kurobas were also already in full costume. Shinichi noted in passing that he hadn't known that Kaito owned a set of bow and arrows (or a sword either, for that matter. They all looked real too. Knowing Kaito, they probably were. What was he supposed to be anyway?), but he was distracted as the elder Kurobas gave them a few last instructions. He and Kaito had volunteered to watch the house and hand out treats that evening while Kaito's parents were away. Then they were supposed to make sure everything was in order for the party guests before they arrived. Then Toichi had wrapped an arm around his wife, winked at the boys, and disappeared with Chikage in a swirl of orange smoke.

"Alone at last!" Kaito cheered before turning to Shinichi with a broad, toothy grin.

Thinking back, Shinichi thought that he should have realized what was going to happen when he finally figured out that Kaito had decided to be Robin Hood. But alas, he hadn't been thinking about it. By the time he noticed his mistake, it was already too late. Which was why he was now standing in a frilly, medieval dress.

"Kaito, where are my clothes?!"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?"

"The clothes I came in! Where are they?"

"Dunno. Where'd you take them off?"

"I didn't! _You _did!"

"I did?"

"Yes! When you put me in this." Shinichi gestured at his outfit, face flushing a little at the reminder of what he was wearing. He wasn't sure if it was more or less embarrassing that Kaito had been thorough and _padded him out_ where necessary to make the stupid thing fit right.

"Aw, don't you look pretty."

Blushing even darker, he spun in a swish of skirts and left in search of his wayward garments.

Kaito's entire closet had vanished. So had Toichi and Chikage's (yes, he'd checked for hers too in the hopes of getting a hold of something less frilly. Or at least something that didn't include a _corset_). Clearly Kaito had thought ahead.

Back in the living room, Kaito grinned as he spotted signs of movement outside. A group of trick-or-treaters were making their way up to the front door. It was show time!

X

Outside, four teenagers and their three younger siblings approached the strangely ordinary house. They had heard from some of the people they'd bumped into in their trek through this neighborhood that the family in this particular home were rather eccentric people. They purportedly had awesome decorations most years and every now and then they set up the best haunted houses ever. Or at least that was what they'd been told. This year, everyone agreed, the house had been left strangely plain. This made everyone native to the neighborhood nervous.

If it weren't for the porch lights being on, the group might have thought the family had decided not to participate in any festivities this year. But since it was, they decided they might as well ring the bell. It couldn't hurt, right? Right.

The skeleton pressed the doorbell. At the same time, the smallest of the kids, currently a bumblebee, banged on the door, giggling at the private amusement of the incredibly young.

To the whole group's surprise, the door swung open at the bee's touch and the kid nearly fell in to what turned out to be a dark hallway. Thanks to his older sister, he was saved the fall. Instead, something—or rather, _someone_—fell out. It was human shaped except it had no head. The porch light gleamed dully off of blood drenched clothes.

The headless body landed with a heavy thud at their feet. Yet more crimson liquid oozed to puddle beneath it.

They screamed.

X

Returning from his fruitless search, Shinichi found Kaito popping a white chocolate ghost into his mouth as he sat on the dark lord's throne. He crossed his arms, still a bit miffed. "Aren't those supposed to be for the trick-or-treaters? I'm pretty sure I remember your mother saying you couldn't eat any until after we're done passing them out."

He was a little surprised when the magician heaved a heavy sigh. "I know, but no one's coming!"

"But I thought I heard the bell ring earlier."

"Well, okay, so there was one group, but they ran away before I could even say hello!"

"You can't exactly blame them. I mean, just look at what you and Toichi-san have done to this place!" He waved a hand at the aged, 'stone' walls. Overhead, something rustled and twittered like a nest of bats. Gauzy cobwebs cast pale shadows in the darkness of the corners of the ceiling. The electric lights had also been passed over in favor of flickering braziers. If he hadn't known better, it would have been easy to believe they really were in some ancient, medieval castle that had long fallen from grace to be haunted by dark creatures and restless ghosts.

Kaito cast a critical eye over it all then shrugged, unwrapping another ghost and biting off its head. "It's Halloween though. People should be expecting this kind of stuff. They're all cowards, that's what it is! They don't deserve candy." He nodded decisively and finished off the ghost before fishing a bat out of the candy basket. "Want one? I think the scarecrows might be coffee flavored."

Interested despite himself, Shinichi wandered over to peer into the candy basket. Inside were ghosts and pumpkins, bats and scarecrows, witches' hats and black cats. Most were chocolate of some kind, but here and there lay a gummy lollipop or a pack of bubblegum. Reaching in, he selected a scarecrow and unwrapped it.

Kaito took the opportunity to set the basket aside and pull Shinichi onto his lap. It got him a light smack on the shoulder, but he could tell that the detective didn't really mind.

"It's going to be boring if no one comes." Shinichi observed. "Do you want to put a movie in?"

"We can if you want to," the magician said absently. He'd buried his nose in the crook of Shinichi's neck. "Or we can just stay here."

Shinichi sighed, torn between rolling his eyes and tilting his head to give Kaito better access. In the end, he did neither as his phone chose that moment to ring (the magician had had the courtesy to leave him his cell despite his costume change). Recognizing the ringtone he'd assigned to all his police contacts, Shinichi answered it.

"Kudo-kun! There's been a murder but we can't find the body."

Shinichi blinked, placing his free hand against Kaito's shoulder to push him away a bit. "What? So how do you know there's been a murder?"

"Seven people saw the headless corpse. We're sitting on the house right now, but we don't see any sign of it. We're still waiting on the warrant, but we were hoping you could come down and give us a hand."

"Where—" Shinichi cut himself off with a stifled gasp. Kaito had just leaned down again and bitten him on the neck. "Stop that!" he hissed, blushing as he covered the microphone with his hand. "I need to go. There's been a murder. The police need my help."

"If you ask me, they need your help way too often," the magician retorted, making no move to let Shinichi go.

"Kudo-kun? Are you still there?"

"Oh, uh, yes, I am, sorry," Shinichi said quickly, batting Kaito's hand away from where it was wandering. "So where is the house?"

Megure rattled off an address.

"…Can you say that again?"

The inspector repeated himself.

"Hold on a moment please, Megure-keibu." He pulled the phone from his ear. "Kai, would you happen to know anything about a headless corpse that was seen falling out of your front door?"

The magician pulled back from where he had settled to nibbling along the detective's neck to laugh. "Oh, that. Just a little surprise I set up to test the trick-or-treaters. Remember how I told you the first group ran away?"

"Apparently they ran to report it to the police."

"Really? Guess I did a pretty good job."

"But what did you do with the body?"

"I put it back for the next group, of course. Though I guess it'll probably end up welcoming the guests instead."

"…" Shinichi turned back to the phone. "Megure-keibu, it was a Halloween prank. I'm in the house right now. It's Kaito's house," he added as an afterthought.

There was a moment of silence before the inspector sighed. "Why am I not surprised? Right then. Thank you, Kudo-kun."

"I'm really sorry."

"No, I'm sure you had nothing to do with it."

. . . . . . . . .

…"Imagine our surprise when we ran into some of the neighbors on our way back and heard there'd been police cars outside the house," said Chikage, shaking her head before she laughed. "It caused quite the excitement. They kept asking if someone had been killed."

"Was it the old couple from across the street then?"

"As a matter of fact, it was." The woman gave her son a look with raised eyebrows. "But how did you know that?"

"They were always like that. They used to wait around on their front porch for Shinichi and me to pass by. Then they'd ask about all the cases Shin-chan was working on and whatnot. Then they'd go on and on about who they thought was involved in criminal activity that he should look into. Remember, Shin-chan? I think they'd accused just about everyone living on this street of murder by the time we finished high school."

The detective laughed a little, scratching at the back of his head. "I remember. They always sounded really enthusiastic about it too. I guess maybe they just wanted something to be excited over."

**TBC**

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><p><strong>A.N<strong>: I'm starting to feel in a rather holiday mood lately. ^_^ Anyhow, hope you had fun reading this. See ya!


	26. Drastic Measures

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Drastic Measures**_

"You guys do realize that this picture is proof that you stood by and watched a crime in progress," Shinichi said dryly, shooting his parents baleful looks…

. . . . . . . . .

Being ambushed the moment he stepped into his bedroom to drop off his schoolbag was not a new experience for Shinichi. Which, he would admit, said a lot about his life and the people in it. Sometimes he wondered if he should be worried about his own mental health. Surely it wasn't a good thing to be so accustomed to such happenings…?

Today, however, was a little different.

First of all, there had been no greeting. His assailant had crept up on him in complete and utter silence. This, at least, meant he had a pretty good idea of who it was before he saw the person's face.

What he still didn't understand was how he'd ended up with his wrists, knees, and ankles tied together. Scratch that. He knew how, he just didn't know why. Being thrown over Kaito's shoulder like a sack of flour didn't improve the situation one bit.

"Kaito, put me down!"

"No can do, Shin-chan. We're on a tight schedule and it'd take way too long to get where we're going if you had to hop your way there."

"Then untie me and let me walk!"

His protests fell on deaf ears as, humming, Kaito picked up the bag of Shinichi's belongings he'd packed earlier with his free hand. Then he headed out of the room and down the stairs. On the way, they passed by the living room, where Yukiko was currently seated on the couch, flipping through magazines.

"Mom! I'm being kidnapped!"

The woman looked up from her magazine, blinked, and beamed. "Oh, well, have fun!"

"Aren't you going to help me?"

"Kaito-kun, do try to make sure he isn't late for school on Monday."

"_Monday_?!" Shinichi squawked, but he was ignored.

"Don't worry, I give you my word, he won't miss school."

"Kaito!"

"Perfect. See you on Monday then."

"Mom!"

Shinichi felt he should be at least a little shocked at his mother's complete lack of concern or apparent desire to help him in any way, but somehow he wasn't. And that, he thought glumly, really did say a lot about his life.

They had reached the entrance hall when they met Kudo Yuusaku. Shinichi perked up a bit before he saw what his father had in his hands.

The writer smirked and held up the camera. "Just hold still. This will only take a second."

Click.

"Dad!"

"There." His gaze turned to Kaito. "So did you need anything?"

"Nope. I've got everything I need."

"Good, good. Have a safe trip then."

"_Dad_!"

The door shut behind them. And that was how Kudo Shinichi was abducted that Friday afternoon.

Shinichi had no idea what the neighbors who might have seen Kaito carrying him away thought of the whole thing, but it seemed that, if there had been any spectators, none of them had deemed it necessary to call the police. Then again, most of them would know exactly who Kaito was. The Kurobas visited the area often enough that their antics were almost as famous in Shinichi's neighborhood as they were in Ekoda.

So they reached the bus stop unhindered. Now Shinichi was sitting, still bound hand and foot, on the bus stop bench. Kaito himself hadn't sat down. He had opted to stand beside the bench, juggling an assortment of items that the detective couldn't help but notice included Shinichi's own cell phone.

"You can't expect me to go on the bus like this," he pointed out, hoping to make Kaito see sense before he was exposed to whoever was on the next bus in this mortifying predicament.

Kaito didn't even slow his juggling. "You'll be fine."

"What if someone calls the police? Even you have to admit this looks illegal."

"I'll deal with it."

"Can you please just untie me?"

"Nope."

"I promise I won't run away." Although he was seriously starting to wonder if that was exactly what he _should_ be doing. He was pleading now, but he didn't care. He really, really did not want to be carried onto a bus. He wanted even less to be carried off it wherever it was Kaito was taking him.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked finally when Kaito only laughed.

"I'm taking you on vacation." The way he said it made it clear that Shinichi's opinion was not required.

Okay. Well, Shinichi had kind of guessed something of the sort from what his parents had said as they were leaving. And it wasn't exactly abnormal for Kaito—or anyone else from their families for that matter—to drag him off on a whim. What he still didn't understand was why the magician had felt the need to literally carry him off. "Couldn't you have just asked?"

"I could have."

"…But you didn't because…?"

The grin Kaito flashed at him then made him feel like a rabbit under the gaze of a hawk. "Because this way I can make sure nothing interferes with my plans."

"…" His statement sparked a memory in the detective's mind. "Is this about last week?" he asked a bit tentatively.

"What makes you say that?"

Shinichi lowered his head. He still felt guilty about that. He hadn't meant to miss their date. It was just that the police had called him, and he'd lost track of time. When he finally remembered that he was supposed to be meeting Kaito, it had already been four hours past time—and his phone battery had been dead.

Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the magician. "I'm sorry."

Kaito didn't answer immediately. Instead he split his juggling balls so that his two hands were now each managing its own circle of juggling balls. The two spinning circles crisscrossed and balls hopped from one circle to the other and back, creating an almost hypnotic effect. When he finally did speak, his voice had become serious. "That wasn't even the first time. And do you know what the worst part is? The worst part," he went on without waiting for an answer, "is not knowing if you're still safe. I don't ever want to get a call out of the blue telling me you've been shot again or worse." The juggling balls vanished and suddenly Kaito was standing directly in front of him. His hands gripped Shinichi's shoulders firmly as he stared down into the younger boy's wide, blue eyes. "I want to _protect_ you, Shinichi. I want you to be safe. I know I can't always be there to watch over you, but I will always come if you need me. You know that, right?"

Stunned and temporarily unable to speak, Shinichi nodded. His heart rate had picked up and he knew he was blushing.

Kaito nodded back but didn't let go. "But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's going on. I know there's no timetable for cases, and that's okay. Schedules never were my thing anyway. But the least you could do is give me a call. Understand?"

Shinichi nodded again.

Now, finally, Kaito smiled. "Good. Because I'll lock you up if I have to."

"Did you really have to add that?"

"Just making myself clear." Relinquishing his hold on Shinichi, the magician pulled a deck of cards from the collar of the detective's shirt and started shuffling. "Oh look, there's our bus. Ready?"

Shinichi blanched. "No. You still have to untie me."

"Hmm. Maybe when we get there."

"_Kaito_…"

"Consider it a warning for your recent behavior. Never ignore a Kuroba."

. . . . . . . . .

…"You can't really call it a crime," said Yuusaku with that know-it-all smile that Shinichi always found vaguely annoying. "We knew you were safe, where you were going, and when you would be back. If the trip was a little unconventional, well, nothing illegal about unconventional."

Shinichi considered smacking himself on the forehead, but he decided it wasn't worth it.

**TBC**


	27. Retaliation

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: Retaliation**_

It was Shinichi's bedroom window. The detective himself was at the window, facing Kaito, who was perched in the branches of the tree just outside. The magician was leaning towards the window, proffering a red rose to his counterpart.

It was, Shinichi reflected, a much more tranquil scene on film than it had actually been in real life…

. . . . . . . . .

It had started with a party. There were very few parties that Shinichi had ever attended of his own free will. This particular party had reminded him of exactly why this was the case.

He'd only gone to the stupid party because Kaito had asked him to. Left to his own devices, Shinichi preferred to avoid parties. But Kaito had had a whole list of reasons why he should go in addition to his natural ability to make people forget their common sense and agree with him (it was all Toichi-san's fault, Shinichi thought grumpily. Stupid magicians and their devious ways). Anyhow, the point was that Shinichi had attended the event despite his better judgment and then found himself at a complete loss. Kaito had been accosted by his classmates the moment they'd arrived and it just went downhill from there (from Shinichi's point of view anyway).

To be fair, it was probably because they were going to different schools, and it was really only natural for classmates to fall into discussions around their shared experiences from classes to teachers to classmates and school events. For Shinichi, it felt a lot like being the only person in a room not privy to an inside joke. In other words, it was awkward. Eventually he'd excused himself to get a drink. He'd hung around the refreshment table as long as he could without getting strange looks before returning to find that Kaito had started an impromptu show. Finding a seat in the corner where he wouldn't be in anyone's way, the detective listened to the others 'oo' and 'ah' over Kaito's magic. That part of the evening was, in retrospect, the only part Shinichi had enjoyed. Unfortunately, he discovered soon after that his spot happened to be right underneath what turned out to be a very powerful speaker. Half deafened, he'd escaped back to the refreshment area as the rest of the congregation hollered for a dance contest. He didn't have to look to know that Kaito would be participating. The magician never missed a chance to show off. Time dragged on. The music had long since become little better than noise to Shinichi's ears and the endless, chaotic chatter and random bursts of laughter grated on his nerves. He had completely lost track of Kaito and the watery coffee was starting to make him angry. Whose bright idea had it been to make such a sad excuse for coffee?! He knew he was being unreasonable, but the knowledge wasn't helping.

That was when he decided it was time to go.

A whole evening of being a fish out of water had not put him in a good mood. More than that though, he'd found himself feeling just a little hurt, though he wasn't entirely sure why. He'd stewed over the matter all the way home, at which point he was too tired to want to think about anything at all. Once there, he went straight to the library and tried burying himself in a book. Usually he had no trouble immersing his thoughts in the pages of a good novel, but this night he just couldn't seem to concentrate. The words just weren't speaking to him. He'd been failing to read for half an hour when his phone started ringing. He didn't answer it. He continued to try to read for another hour before giving up.

Ignoring the twenty three missed calls he had from Kaito, he went to bed.

A good night's sleep had seen him feeling slightly better but still a little off kilter. This time, however, the books were being more cooperative. It was a Saturday, so he settled in for a day of peace, quiet, and mystery fiction. His phone was blinking, telling him he had messages, but he switched it off and dropped it into a drawer.

Kaito was the kind of person who delighted in pushing people's buttons. He derived pleasure from making people react. He liked to make them laugh and gasp in awe, but Shinichi knew for a fact that he found making people howl in rage pretty entertaining too. It was a matter of reaction—how different people reacted in different ways to different things was the foundation of many a private game for the magician in his never ending war against boredom.

Therefore Shinichi had perfected the art of "not noticing". To totally and completely ignore him was, Shinichi had found, the best way to retaliate against the attention-loving magician. It tended to drive Kaito nuts, and it had the added bonus of giving Shinichi more time to read his beloved books.

Quality reading time tended to make Shinichi feel better. When he was reading, he could forget about everything else and just submerge himself in the pages and their little, self-contained worlds where everything made sense.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Startled by the unexpected sound, Shinichi looked up from where he'd been reading at the desk in his room with an extra large mug of coffee by his elbow (it was the mug he used when he felt like he needed as much coffee as he could get with the minimal amount of effort spent walking back and forth to the kitchen).

Kaito was outside his window.

Shinichi immediately looked away, going back to the book in his hands. The rapping noise came again, but this time he knew what it was and so remained unmoved. He could feel the magician's eyes on him as he continued to read. The seconds ticked by.

Three hours later, he could still feel those eyes watching.

Unable to help it, Shinichi cast a quick peek at the window. Yep, there was Kaito still in the tree outside his window, staring at him with remorseful eyes.

Blue eyes dropped hurriedly back to the open book. What was Kaito thinking? Shinichi huffed, turning another page. Was he going to sit out there all day? But it was almost lunch time. And Kaito was a pretty big eater. He would have to leave when he got hungry. Unless he brought food with him, which wasn't entirely impossible. Even so…

Shinichi turned another page.

The weather was pretty cold today. There was a brisk wind blowing. Kaito hadn't been wearing a jacket. Shinichi's eyebrows drew together. Stupid magician. He was going to catch himself a cold. Then again, Kaito just about never got sick. Wasn't there a saying about that?

He turned another page then turned it back because he realized he couldn't remember a single thing he'd read on the previous page.

The cycle repeated three more times before he finally snatched a bookmark, jabbed it into the book, set the book on the table, and stormed to the window. He threw it open and glared at the suddenly smiling face that greeted him.

"What are you doing?" Shinichi demanded. "You're going to make yourself sick sitting out all day in this weather with no jacket! _Go home_."

"You could always invite me in," Kaito suggested, looking hopeful.

"I'm busy!"

"But you've just been reading for four hours…"

"Like I said, busy." Shinichi crossed his arms defiantly.

The magician's face fell. "You're still mad at me, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about? I just don't want you staring at me through my window all day. It's creepy."

"I'm really sorry about yesterday," Kaito said earnestly, producing a red rose from nowhere and holding it out like a peace offering. "I didn't mean to make you feel neglected—"

"I did not feel neglected!" Shinichi lied vehemently. "I was just tired."

"—or left out," the magician went on smoothly. "I got carried away. It was wrong of me. I really am sorry. I promise it won't happen again. So please, forgive me?"

Shinichi struggled to hang on to his resolve to be upset. His gaze focused on the rose then traveled up to Kaito's face again. He bit his lip.

"Shin-chan?"

Shinichi's breath left him in a sigh as he deflated. "Fine," he mumbled, taking the rose. "Just—don't ask me to any more parties unless you actually want me to be there."

"I always want you to be there."

Shinichi blushed, suddenly feeling a lot happier than he had all day.

That was when they heard the snap.

Both their eyes widened as the branch Kaito had been perched on began to fall away.

"Kai!" Shinichi cried out in alarm, trying to grab the magician's hand.

Kaito reacted on instinct. Launching himself off of the falling branch, he dove through Shinichi's open window, catching the smaller boy by surprise and sending them both tumbling to the floor in a heap of flailing arms and legs.

The crash they made hitting the floor was followed shortly by the sound of running footsteps. An instant later Yukiko threw open the door. She blinked, taking in the sight of her son groaning (and clutching his head, which he'd bumped on the hardwood floor) as he lay pinned under a certain messy-haired magician who had not come through the front door (she would have seen him coming if he had).

"Oh my," she said and closed the door. They could hear her giggling as she walked away.

This time Shinichi groaned for entirely different reasons.

. . . . . . . . .

…That had not been one of his better moments, Kaito mused. And he'd rather mourned the loss of that branch. It had been one of the best for reaching Shinichi's window with. On the other hand, it had fallen for a good cause.

**TBC**


	28. The Play

Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

* * *

><p><strong>Caught on Camera<strong>

_**Photograph: The Play**_

The following was a two-page spread of photos all under the heading of "_The Play_". Shinichi rolled his eyes. Honestly, he was starting to think that their parents hadn't put this album together as a memento of their lives together so much as they had put it together to be a memento of his most embarrassing moments…

. . . . . . . . .

Yukiko was surprised when her son came slumping through the front door that afternoon. He toed off his shoes, shuffled them to the side, then slouched into the living room where he proceeded to lie face down on the couch cushions. His backpack had been dropped en route to said couch and it lay there like a dead animal.

Curious and a little bit concerned, Yukiko followed him into the room and sat down in the armchair by the hearth. "Shin-chan, what's wrong?"

Shinichi's reply came in a series of muffled syllables lost in the cushions and completely incoherent.

"It's okay if you got a bad grade. There's always next time."

This time Shinichi turned his head to the side to free his mouth from the couch. "I did not get a bad grade."

"Oh? So then what are you moping about?"

Shinichi heaved a sigh that could have anchored ships. "They're making us do a play at school."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Yukiko lit up with sudden excitement. She'd always wished that Shinichi would follow in her footsteps, but unfortunately he'd never shown any interest in even trying. "Are you going to be acting?"

"Unfortunately," her son groaned like he was announcing his own death sentence. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything for my baby."

"Just kill me now."

"Shinichi!" The woman's tone grew stern. "That's no way to talk. A little acting isn't going to hurt you."

"You don't understand at all," Shinichi complained, rolling over onto his back and throwing an arm over his eyes. "_Sonoko_ picked the play."

Yukiko thought about this for a moment. She had met Suzuki Sonoko quite a few times as she was often in Shinichi's class and was technically one of his friends when she wasn't one of his enemies. The girl was very energetic and loved nothing more than a good dramatic romance.

"Even if you don't like the story, it should be a good experience," she said.

Shinichi snorted in disbelief.

"Well, what story did she pick?"

Shinichi pointed wordlessly to his backpack. Yukiko moved to the discarded pack and rummaged through it. The contents were fairly orderly, it being Shinichi's backpack, so it didn't take her long to find the photocopied playbook. Smiling to herself, she opened it and skimmed quickly through the story. It appeared to be a variation on the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. It had been tweaked to include more characters and more drama, but all the most important points were the same.

"So have you all decided on your parts yet?" she asked.

"We drew straws."

The problem was that they had forgotten to split the straws for male and female roles. One of the girls had drawn the role of king and a boy had drawn the straw for queen, but that had worked out okay considering they just had to be the royal couple. One of the fairy godmothers was also a guy, so now there would be two fairy godmothers and one fairy godfather. So far so good.

Yukiko listened as Shinichi recounted the story in a monotone. She could guess what was coming, considering her baby's general bad luck.

Shinichi had had his fingers crossed for a spot in the tech crew. He liked working with technology, and all the experience helping Kaito with his magic tricks should help. But alas, he'd drawn the last straw he'd wanted.

But of course his classmates, being high school students, found the whole situation vastly hilarious and refused to change the casting.

By now Yukiko was having a hard time smothering her laughter. "Don't let it get you all depressed, okay?" she advised, smiling down at her distraught son. "I'm sure you'll make a wonderful princess. I am your mother after all."

Shinichi grabbed a cushion and tried to smother himself.

After he'd gotten over his initial dismay, however, Shinichi had decided that it could've been worse. After all, this meant he had a very limited number of lines. For half the play, all he would have to do was lie there. No talking and no acting. It sounded pretty perfect when he thought about it from that angle.

That didn't stop him from complaining about the situation to Kaito that weekend. He had expected the magician to laugh and tease him. Therefore, he was a bit surprised when Kaito took the news with narrowed eyes and a set jaw.

"I refuse to stand by and allow some random stranger to kiss you!"

Shinichi choked on his coffee. "Don't be ridiculous. No one's going to be kissing anyone!"

"But it's in the script!" Kaito shot back, brandishing said script with a fierce scowl on his face. "The prince kisses the princess to wake her up."

"It's not going to be real! It's just a stage illusion! You should know that."

"But what if he changes his mind?"

"Nikota-kun has a girlfriend!"

"And she doesn't mind?"

"She thinks it's funny."

Kaito made a noncommittal noise. "I still don't like it."

"Well I don't like it either," Shinichi retorted. "And if my opinion doesn't matter, yours certainly won't either. Remember, you don't even go to our school."

Kaito glowered and went back to leafing through the script, muttering under his breath. Shinichi let out his umpteenth sigh that week and got up to get more coffee.

Preparations and rehearsals flew by in a whirlwind of activity. It was hectic and tiring and over all too soon.

And there they were on the night of the show. Shinichi had managed to get through the first half of the play without making any mistakes, though he would admit later that he didn't remember much of it. The brilliance of the stage lights had hidden most of the audience, making it easier for him to pretend that they weren't there. The wig was a bit itchy and the dress a bit cumbersome, but he did his best to ignore them. Now all he had to do was lie still on the prop bed and pretend to sleep.

The detective took a deep breath and let himself relax. It was rather warm with all the lights and the heavily embroidered prop blanket. He was going to have to concentrate on not falling asleep for real, he mused. He turned his head a little so that he could better hear what was going on. The lights went dark momentarily as the scene changed. Shinichi could hear the hurried footsteps as Nikota and the others took their places.

The lights came back and the next scene began.

Shinichi started in surprise, though he managed to keep his eyes closed and his face devoid of expression. That was not Nikota's voice. No, that was most definitely Kaito's voice delivering Nikota's lines with flawless accuracy. What the hell? He heard the falter in his classmates' voices as they too wondered what in the world was happening, but they rallied and the play carried on uninterrupted.

Then Shinichi sensed a presence standing right beside him and his breath hitched. It was Kaito. He just knew it was. And that meant—

Warm lips pressed against his own and he temporarily stopped breathing.

The rest of the play went by in a blur. Then the curtains fell and Shinichi heaved a sigh of relief before glaring at Kaito. "What did you do to Nikota-kun?"

The magician only laughed. "Calm down. I didn't hurt him or anything. He's just taking a nap."

"I can't believe you pulled a stunt like this."

"Really? But I already told you I wasn't going to let anyone else kiss you."

"No one was going to!" Shinichi would have said more, but he didn't have the time as the cast was called out to take their bows.

Shinichi bowed along with the rest of them, face burning all the while. His classmates were shooting him sidelong looks and giggling. His only consolation was that everyone in the audience most likely thought it had been an act.

Everyone except his and Kaito's parents anyway.

He groaned silently. He was never going to hear the end of this.

. . . . . . . . .

…Yukiko sighed dreamily. "It was a beautiful production. And a very convincing kiss~." She winked at the former stars of the show.

Kaito grinned back, proud as a peacock. "Of course."

Shinichi ducked his head to hide his blush and turned the page.

**TBC**


End file.
